The Search for Meaning
An Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics
by Walter C. Kaiser & Moises Silva
New hardcover with dust jacket. Dust jacket shows light bookstore shelf wear.
298 pages, 1994 edition, ISBNÂ 0310530903, Zondervan Publishers
From the DJ flap
Bernard Ramm's Protestant Biblical Hermeneutics, published in 1956,
attracted a broad spectrum of Bible readers and set the tone of
biblical interpretation for a whole generation of evangelical students.
An Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics could have a similar role for
this generation at the end of the twentieth century.
Almost every
assumption that Ramm made has been challenged and tested by the winds
of modernity and post-modernity. The severity of the changes from
earlier patterns of thinking is reflected in the subtitle to this book,
The Search for Meaning.
This book is distinctive from others on
hermeneutics in that the authors, rather than writing from a single
viewpoint, hold differing opinions on many issues. There are more areas
where they agree than disagree, including the authority of Scripture
and the primacy of authorial meaning; but where they disagree is
precisely where the issues are most crucial for the future. So the
readers are invited , in effect, to eavesdrop on a vibrant dialogue
between two scholars and to reach their own conclusions. Despite the
convivial tone, the readers must not mistake how great the stakes are.
In a culture that prizes individuality and personal freedom, the
primary question is no longer "Is it true?" but rather "Does it
matter?" hence the question of relevancy has taken precedence over the
questions "What does the text mean?" This book therefore confronts the
question of meaning and shows how evangelicals may still clearly hear
the Word from God amid the cacophony of the age.
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