The rise of modernity, especially the European Enlightenment and its aftermath, has negatively impacted the way we understand the nature and interpretation of Christian Scripture. In this introduction to biblical interpretation, Craig Carter evaluates the problems of post-Enlightenment hermeneutics and offers an alternative approach: exegesis in harmony with the Great Tradition of Christian interpretation. Addressing the growing gulf between academic hermeneutics and the preaching ministry of the church, Carter proposes major reforms to our theory of biblical interpretation in order to bring our theory into line with our practice. He argues for the validity of patristic christological exegesis, showing that we must recover the Nicene theological tradition as the context for contemporary exegesis, and seeks to root both the nature and interpretation of Scripture firmly in trinitarian orthodoxy.

Interpreting Scripture with the Great Tradition will be useful in hermeneutics, biblical interpretation, and theology courses.

Contents

1. Who is the Suffering Servant? The Crisis in Contemporary Hermeneutics
Part 1: Theological Hermeneutics
2. Toward a Theology of Scripture
3. The Theological Metaphysics of the Great Tradition
4. The History of Biblical Interpretation Reconsidered
Part 2: Recovering Premodern Exegesis
5. Reading the Bible as a Unity Centered on Jesus Christ
6. Letting the Literal Sense Control All Meaning
7. Seeing and Hearing Christ in the Old Testament
8. The Identity of the Suffering Servant Revisited
Appendix 1: Criteria for Limiting the Spiritual Sense
Indexes