History and Hermeneutics is the latest volume from the ever-excellent Murray Rae. In it Murray shows how unnecessary the divorce of the bible from the church was; each stage of the separation was intellectually corrupt, but how when the gospel is allowed to shape our understanding of history, Christian doctrine retrieves its proper apostolic role in teaching the Church how to see and hear Scripture as God’s gracious witness to the church and the world. Here is T & T Clark’s description of his latest book:
History and Hermeneutics addresses the relation between historiography and hermeneutics during the past three hundred years of western thought, traces its genealogy from classical Greek thought, and argues that the practice of contemporary biblical hermeneutics has been radically impaired by a widespread allegiance to a series of problematic assumptions about history. The book offers a theological account of what history is, centred on the categories of creation and divine promise, and proposes that it is within this theological conception of history that the Bible may be understood on its own terms.
The book is both critical and constructive, identifying problems in hermeneutics and proposing a way forward. The ecclesial reading of Scripture and the value of tradition are rehabilitated and an account is given of how we may properly ask the question, ‘what really happened?’
1. History and History Writing;
2. Creation and Promise;
3. Resurrection – The Centre and End of History;
4. Seeing What Really Happened;
5. Hearing What Really Happened;
6. The Ecclesial Reading of Scripture;
7. Re-Reading the Text.
This is Murray’s version of the famous ‘Reason and Revelation’ course at Kings College London, which was handed down, father to son, from Gunton to Schwöbel to Torrance to Rae, some of which became The Practice of Theology (which is also due a sequel). Rumour says that Murray was intending to introduce a new course on theological hermeneutics – which impertinently suggested that the Christian church has a claim on the bible, and thus that the bible is not solely a cat litter tray for academics. Now back in NZ, Murray is part of the team launching the Journal for Theological Interpretation
