Kevin J. Vanhoozer

Kevin Vanhoozer's Is There a Meaning in This Text? Has established itself as the premier treatment of biblical hermeneutics, a significant contribution that will be of interest to readers in numerous fields. This tenth anniversary edition includes a new preface by the author and a foreword by Craig L. Blomberg.

The Bible, the Reader, and the Morality of Literary Knowledge

Is There a Meaning in this Text?

Peter Enns

R. Albert Mohler, Jr.

Michael F. Bird

John R. Franke

Five Views on Biblical Inerrancy, new in Zondervan s popular Counterpoints series, features the spectrum of evangelical positions on inerrancy---a timely and often contentious topic. Facilitating understanding of these perspectives, particularly where and why they diverge, the contributors to Five Views on Biblical Inerrancy encourage sensitivity as the basis for future evangelical considerations on this topic."

Five Views on Biblical Inerrancy

a canonical-linguistic approach to Christian theology

The drama of doctrine

The foundation of discipleship is sound, scriptural doctrine. The value of sound doctrine is often misunderstood by the modern church. While it can be dry and dull, when it flows from the story of Scripture, it can be full of life and love. This kind of doctrine, steeped in Scripture, is critical for disciple-making. And it's often overlooked by modern pastors. In Hearers and Doers, Kevin Vanhoozer makes the case that pastors, as pastor-theologians, ought to interpret Scripture theologically to articulate doctrine and help cultivate disciples. scriptural doctrine is vital to the life of the church, and local pastor-theologians should be the ones delivering it to their communities. With arresting prose and striking metaphors, Vanhoozer addresses the most pressing problems in the modern church with one answer: teach sound, scriptural doctrine to make disciples.

A Pastor's Guide to Making Disciples Through Scripture and Doctrine

Hearers and Doers

The rise of modern science and the proclaimed 'death' of God in the nineteenth century led to a radical questioning of divine action and authorship - Bultmann's celebrated 'demythologizing'. Remythologizing Theology moves in another direction that begins by taking seriously the biblical accounts of God's speaking. It establishes divine communicative action as the formal and material principle of theology, and suggests that interpersonal dialogue, rather than impersonal causality, is the keystone of God's relationship with the world. This original contribution to the theology of divine action and authorship develops a fresh vision of Christian theism. It also revisits several long-standing controversies such as the relations of God's sovereignty to human freedom, time to eternity, and suffering to love. Groundbreaking and thought-provoking, it brings theology into fruitful dialogue with philosophy, literary theory, and biblical studies.

Divine Action, Passion, and Authorship

Remythologizing Theology

Blazing a pathway for recovering the unity of biblical studies and theological reflection, Kevin J. Vanhoozer addresses the challenges presented by the contemporary so-called postmodern situation, especially deconstructionism.

God, Scripture & Hermeneutics

First Theology

In this collection of essays, Kevin Vanhoozer turns from hermeneutical theory to hermeneutical practice through explorations of how theology informs the church's worship, witness and wisdom.

Scenes of the Church's Worship, Witness and Wisdom

Pictures at a Theological Exhibition

How the Five Solas Can Renew Biblical Interpretation In recent years, notable scholars have argued that the Protestant Reformation unleashed interpretive anarchy on the church. Is it time to consider the Reformation to be a 500-year experiment gone wrong? World-renowned evangelical theologian Kevin Vanhoozer thinks not. While he sees recent critiques as legitimate, he argues that retrieving the Reformation's core principles offers an answer to critics of Protestant biblical interpretation. Vanhoozer explores how a proper reappropriation of the five solas--sola gratia (grace alone), sola fide (faith alone), sola scriptura (Scripture alone), solus Christus (in Christ alone), and sola Deo gloria (for the glory of God alone)--offers the tools to constrain biblical interpretation and establish interpretive authority. He offers a positive assessment of the Reformation, showing how a retrieval of "mere Protestant Christianity" has the potential to reform contemporary Christian belief and practice. This provocative response and statement from a top theologian is accessibly written for pastors and church leaders.

Retrieving the Solas in the Spirit of Mere Protestant Christianity

Biblical Authority after Babel

I. Howard Marshall

Stanley E. Porter

A seasoned interpreter presents a "principled approach," showing how the Bible, though written long ago, can speak authoritatively on contemporary ethical, doctrinal, and practical issues.

Moving from Scripture to Theology

Beyond the Bible

Southwestern Journal of Theology 2024 Book of The Year • Christianity Today 2024 Theology Book Award • The Gospel Coalition 2024 Biblical Studies Book Award Reading the Bible to the glory of God. In 1952, C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity eloquently defined the essential tenets of the Christian faith. With the rise of fractured individualism that continues to split the church, this approach is more important now than ever before for biblical hermeneutics. Many Christians wonder how to read the text of Scripture well, rightly, and faithfully. After all, developing a strong theory of interpretation has always been presented by two enormous challenges: A variety of actual interpretations of the Bible, even within the context of a single community of believers. The plurality of reading cultures—denominational, disciplinary, historical, and global interpretive communities—each with its own frame of reference. In response, influential theologian Kevin J. Vanhoozer puts forth a "mere" Christian hermeneutic—essential principles for reading the Bible as Scripture everywhere, at all times, and by all Christians. To center his thought, Vanhoozer turns to the accounts of Jesus' transfiguration—a key moment in the broader economy of God's revelation—to suggest that spiritual or "figural" interpretation is not a denial or distortion of the literal sense but, rather, its glorification. Irenic without resorting to bland ecumenical tolerance, Mere Christian Hermeneutics is a powerful and convincing call for both church and academy to develop reading cultures that enable and sustain the kind of unity and diversity that a "mere Christian hermeneutic" should call for and encourage

Transfiguring What It Means to Read the Bible Theologically

Mere Christian Hermeneutics

Professor Kevin J Vanhoozer

A critical account of Ricoeur's theory of narrative interpretation and its contribution to theology.

A Study in Hermeneutics and Theology

Biblical Narrative in the Philosophy of Paul Ricoeur

In this volume, highly esteemed scholar Kevin Vanhoozer introduces readers to a way of thinking about Christian theology that takes the work he began in the groundbreaking 2005 book, The Drama of Doctrine, to its next level. Vanhoozer argues that theology is not merely a set of cognitive beliefs, but is also something we do that involves speech and action alike. He uses a theatrical model to explain the ways in which doctrine shapes Christian understanding and forms disciples. The church, Vanhoozer posits, is the preeminent theater where the gospel is "performed," with doctrine directing this performance. Doctrines are not simply truths to be stored, shelved, and stacked, but indications and directions to be followed, practiced, and enacted. In "performing" doctrine, Christians are shaped into active disciples of Jesus Christ. He goes on to examine the state of the church in today's world and explores how disciples can do or perform doctrine. Written in an accessible and engaging style, Faith Speaking Understanding sets forth a compelling vision of what the church is and what it should be doing, and demonstrates the importance of Christian doctrine for this mission. Disciples who want to follow Christ in all situations need doctrinal direction as they walk onto the social stage in the great theater of the world. The Christian faith is about acknowledging, and participating in, the great thing God is doing in our world: making all things new in Christ through the Holy Spirit. Doctrine ministers understanding: of God, of the drama of redemption, of the church as a company of faithful players, and of individual actors, all of whom have important roles to play. In an age where things fall apart and centers fail to hold, doctrine centers us in Jesus Christ, in whom all things hold together.

Performing the Drama of Doctrine

Faith Speaking Understanding

Constantine R. Campbell

Michael J. Thate

Nineteen biblical scholars and theologians in this volume explore the notions of union and participation within Pauline theology, teasing out the complex web of meaning conveyed through Paul's theological vision of being "in Christ." With essays that investigate Pauline theology and exegesis, ex-amine highlights from reception history, and offer deep theological reflection, this exemplary multidisciplinary collection charts new ground in the scholarly understanding of Paul's thought and its theological implications.

Explorations in Paul's Theology of Union and Participation

"In Christ" in Paul

Vanhoozer Kevin J.

Postmodernity allows for no absolutes and no essence. Yet theology is concerned with the absolute, the essential. How then does theology sit within postmodernity? Is postmodern theology possible, or is such a concept a contradiction in terms? Should theology bother about postmodernism or just get on with its own thing? Can it? Theologians have responded in many different ways to the challenges posed by theories of postmodernity. In this introductory 2003 guide to a complex area, editor Kevin J. Vanhoozer addresses the issue head on in a lively survey of what 'talk about God' might mean in a postmodern age, and vice versa. The book then offers examples of different types of contemporary theology in relation to postmodernity, while the second part examines the key Christian doctrines in postmodern perspective. Leading theologians contribute to this clear and informative Companion, which no student of theology should be without.

The Cambridge Companion to Postmodern Theology

Owen Strachan

Many pastors today see themselves primarily as counselors, leaders, and motivators. Yet this often comes at the expense of the fundamental reality of the pastorate as a theological office. The most important role is to be a theologian mediating God to the people. The church needs pastors who can contextualize biblical wisdom in Christian living to help their congregations think theologically about all aspects of their lives, such as work, end-of-life decisions, political involvement, and entertainment choices. Drawing on the Bible, key figures from church history, and Christian theology, this book offers a clarion call for pastors to serve as public theologians in their congregations and communities. It is designed to be engaging reading for busy pastors and includes pastoral reflections on the theological task from twelve working pastors, including Kevin DeYoung and Cornelius Plantinga.

Reclaiming a Lost Vision

The Pastor as Public Theologian

Daniel J. Treier

In this inaugural volume in the Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture, Kevin J. Vanhoozer and Daniel J. Treier set forth a programmatic proposal for evangelical theology, rooted in the claim that the church's vocation is to mirror the witness of Scripture in its doctrine and discipleship.

A Mere Evangelical Account

Theology and the Mirror of Scripture

"Theological Interpretation of the Old Testament features key articles from the award-winning Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible (DTIB), providing a history of interpretation and covering major theological ideas for each book of the Old Testament. The articles, authored by leading scholars, make unique contributions to the study of theological interpretation of Scripture. This handy and affordable text offers students, pastors, and lay readers a comprehensive, book-by-book theological reading of the Old Testament."--BOOK JACKET.

Kevin J. Vanhoozer

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