Thesis advisor: John Sallis / In comparing hermeneutic application to Aristotle's concept of phronêsis, Hans-Georg Gadamer insists that historical interpretation is not just a theoretical but also a practical task pertaining to human conduct as such. It is said to involve a similar level of self-understanding that acknowledges one's historical and linguistic situation, bearing strong connections to the intersubjective exercise of judgment and the development of freedom. This dissertation investigates these claims by presenting a detailed analysis of Gadamer's concepts of historical effect [Wirkungsgeschichte] and the reflective consciousness thereof [wirkungsgeschichtliches Bewusstsein]. I delineate Gadamer's position in part through engagement with contemporary debates and misunderstandings of his stance, and in part by setting it in contrast with several central figures who influenced his notions of tradition and freedom: Kant, Hegel, and Heidegger. This contrasting move helps on the one hand to reveal just how fruitful Gadamer's concepts are, and on the other to underscore that Gadamer enacts the very dialogical relation to tradition that he elucidates in his hermeneutics. On the basis of these developments, it is possible to see more clearly the ethical relevance Gadamer takes hermeneutics to have, and to grasp in particular the importance he places upon historical engagement within the humanities. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Philosophy.

Doctor Theologiae - DTh / Benewens persoonlike belangstelling in die boodskap van die Ou Testament vir die kerk van vandag, is dit veral kontemporêre teologiese debatte en verwikkelinge op die kerklike terrein, plaaslik sowel as op die breë ekumeniese front, wat tot hierdie studie aanJeiding gegee het. Eerstens: Een van die artikels van die Belharbelydenis' lui onder andere: "Ons glo ... dat God op 'n besondere wyse (Homself geopenbaar het as) die God van die noodlydende, die arme en die verontregte ...(my kursivering); dat Hy aan die verdruktes reg laat geskied en brood aan die hongeriges gee; dat Hy die gevangenes bevry en blindes laat sien; dat Hy dié wat bedruk is ondersteun, die vreemdelinge beskerm en weeskinders en weduwees help en die pad van die goddelose versper." Toe dié spesifieke artikel van die konsepbelydenis gedurende die sinodesitting' onder bespreking gekom het, het somrnige van die afgevaardigdes ernstige besware geopper teen die wyse van formulering dat God op 'n besondere wyse die God van die noodlydende, die arme en die verontregte is. So 'n stelling skep, volgens hulle, die indruk dat God inderdaad kant gekies het vir die noodlydendes en dat Hy dus by implikasie 'n God van die armes, verdruktes en verontregtes is. Die sinodale kommissie wat VIr die formulering van die konsepbelydenis verantwoordelik was, het hierop ontkennend geantwoord en tot gerusstelling van die sinodegangers aangevoer dat die betrokke artikel eenvoudig beskou moet word as die verwoording van die "basiese, oer-Bybelse en oer-Christelike oortuiging, naamlik dat God die hulp van die hulpelose is"(Smit 1984:65). Die konsepbelydenis is aan die Kerk deurgegee met die oog op kritiese besinning gedurende die sinodereses en vir die voorlegging van kommentaar by die daaropvolgende sinode.' Vanselfsprekend sou só 'n totaal nuwe belydenisskrif sy eie invloed op die kerklike lewe uitoefen. Daar kan verwag word dat verskillende aksente op sekere artikels mettertyd gelê sal word. Oor sommige van die stellings sal gaandeweg nuwe interpretasies na vore kom en 'n verskeidenheid van betekenisnuanses sal met verloop van tyd verwag kan word Belangrikste van alles is dat bepaalde formuleringe deur die loop van die kerk se geskiedenis opnuut aan die hand van die Skrif getoets sal word. Die studie is indertyd geïnisieer in die hoop om in so 'n Wirkungsgeschichte 'n bydrae te lewer.

The present study is a history of interpretation. In that sense it does not fit neatly into the category of Wirkungsgeschichte. Moving through successive periods of the Christian church’s history, we will select representative interpretations of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and theological works dealing explicitly with the question of true and false prophecy in an effort to present a sampling of material from the span of the church’s existence. This study seeks to function as a hermeneutical guide for the present interpretive problem of interpreting true and false prophecy in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible by displaying ways various interpreters have broached the subject in the past. In this way it may prove useful to the current impasse concerning the notion of false prophecy in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. Seeing continuity, or a family resemblance, in the Christian church’s interpretation of true and false prophecy in relation to the law’s role amongst exilic and post-exilic prophets, we will observe those ways in which a historically informed reading might offer an interpretive guide for subsequent interpretations of true and false prophecy.

Zugl.: Rom, Univ. Gregoriana, Diss., 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

In the history of exegesis 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11-15 have functioned as the heavy artillery against women in the ministries. From the 4th century BC, when the Church really started to develop from a dynamic underground movement of believers to a state Church organised in the image of the Roman Empire and so became the Catholic Church, women were more and more suppressed under the influence of deeply rooted Hellenistic anthropological ideas that were read into these passages. Only in the second half of the Twentieth Century, under the influence of changes in society after the sexual and feminist revolutions, changes set in that sparked the discussion about the role of women in the Church. This discussion is still continuing – in the Reformed tradition at least. These two passages, however, seem to oppose an overwhelming number of biblical themes and data that at least bring a strong nuance to the picture the two passages seem to portray. The creation of man and woman in the image of God and the protection for women against the arbitrariness of men clearly picture an original and principal equality of men and women. In the circle of disciples around Jesus Christ this becomes even more manifest. This attitude is also visible in the earliest churches. Paul expresses this in Galatians 3:28: In Christ there is no … male nor female. The passages that seem to limit the rights of women in the Church do not actually oppose this picture, but show that for the sake of the proclamation of the gospel not everything is (immediately) allowed. This dissertation attempted to interpret these two passages with the help of the grammatical-historic method. In 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 Paul personally intervenes in the apparent chaotic meetings of the cosmopolitan and charismatic congregation. He requires from different categories of participants – among them the married women that have a Christian husband – to not burden the fellowship with – in the case of the aforementioned women – their (otherwise rightful) participation in the discussion of the prophetic message during the worship service. In 1 Timothy 2:11-15 he gives his friend and student Timothy, the young pastor and teacher of the congregation in Ephesus, tools to call upon the members of the congregation not to start a revolution but to conquer the world for Christ by living an exemplary life. The context of this directive is a heresy that was particularly influencing some women that developed a prominent and domineering attitude in the Church. None of these directives or instructions of Paul talk about special ministries in the Church. It is all about attitude. For the sake of the steady progress of the gospel this attitude is to be determined by discipline and humbleness. However, the form this discipline and humbleness have largely depends on the context of the believers. / MTh (New Testament), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

In the history of exegesis 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11-15 have functioned as the heavy artillery against women in the ministries. From the 4th century BC, when the Church really started to develop from a dynamic underground movement of believers to a state Church organised in the image of the Roman Empire and so became the Catholic Church, women were more and more suppressed under the influence of deeply rooted Hellenistic anthropological ideas that were read into these passages. Only in the second half of the Twentieth Century, under the influence of changes in society after the sexual and feminist revolutions, changes set in that sparked the discussion about the role of women in the Church. This discussion is still continuing – in the Reformed tradition at least. These two passages, however, seem to oppose an overwhelming number of biblical themes and data that at least bring a strong nuance to the picture the two passages seem to portray. The creation of man and woman in the image of God and the protection for women against the arbitrariness of men clearly picture an original and principal equality of men and women. In the circle of disciples around Jesus Christ this becomes even more manifest. This attitude is also visible in the earliest churches. Paul expresses this in Galatians 3:28: In Christ there is no … male nor female. The passages that seem to limit the rights of women in the Church do not actually oppose this picture, but show that for the sake of the proclamation of the gospel not everything is (immediately) allowed. This dissertation attempted to interpret these two passages with the help of the grammatical-historic method. In 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 Paul personally intervenes in the apparent chaotic meetings of the cosmopolitan and charismatic congregation. He requires from different categories of participants – among them the married women that have a Christian husband – to not burden the fellowship with – in the case of the aforementioned women – their (otherwise rightful) participation in the discussion of the prophetic message during the worship service. In 1 Timothy 2:11-15 he gives his friend and student Timothy, the young pastor and teacher of the congregation in Ephesus, tools to call upon the members of the congregation not to start a revolution but to conquer the world for Christ by living an exemplary life. The context of this directive is a heresy that was particularly influencing some women that developed a prominent and domineering attitude in the Church. None of these directives or instructions of Paul talk about special ministries in the Church. It is all about attitude. For the sake of the steady progress of the gospel this attitude is to be determined by discipline and humbleness. However, the form this discipline and humbleness have largely depends on the context of the believers. / MTh (New Testament), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Brevard Childs argues for the inner logic of scripture’s textual authority as an historical reality that gives rise to the material condition by which the church apprehends and experiences God in Christ. The church’s use of (or by) scripture thus has a larger interiority: the shaped canon of scripture, Old and New Testaments, is a rule of faith which accrues authority in the church, through the vehicle of the sensus literalis. Childs’ work has been misplaced, however. Part one locates it internationally, attending to the way it has been read in English and German and finding that it has enjoyed a more patient reception in Europe than in Britain or North America. To illustrate, Childs’ definition of biblical theology is contrasted with that of James Barr. Their differences over gesamtbiblische theology involve opposite turns toward and away from Barthian dogma in biblical inquiry. Part two examines Childs on biblical reference, introducing why intertextuality is not midrashic but deictic—pointing to the res. This coincides with an understanding of the formation of biblical literature. Childs’ argument for canonical shaping is juxtaposed with Hermann Gunkel on tradition history, showing “final form” to be a deliberate inversion of form critical principles. Childs’ interest in the Bible as religious literature is then set alongside his studious confrontation of Judaism, with implications for inter-religious dialogue. Barr and Childs are compared again in part three, which frames their respective senses of indirect and direct biblical reference in terms of allegory. Both see allegory at work in the modern world under certain rules (either biblical criticism or the regula fidei). Their rules affect their articulations of trinitarian dogma. Finally, Psalm102 highlights divergences between modern and pre-modern interpreters. If scripture comprehends the present immediately, some postures of the church toward the synagogue may be excluded.