In Defence of ‘Theological’ Readings of the New Testament

Abstract

‘Theological interpretation of Scripture’ (TIS) has undergone a resurgence within Christian theology. This has been matched in some quarters of ‘mainstream’ New Testament studies by a renewed insistence on the illegitimacy of such an approach in the context of academic readings of the New Testament. In this article the author mounts a defence for the academic credibility of ‘theological’ readings of the New Testament, while simultaneously articulating the manner in which such readings have frequently overstepped the boundaries of their hermeneutical framework. He notes the two reading strategies emerge implicitly out of mutually exclusive hermeneutical traditions and suggests that explicating the hermeneutical foundations of both reading strategies might explain the conflict and help to move beyond it.