| The goal of this project is to describe the history of biblical (esp. New Testament) hermeneutics, especially the interaction between text and reader. While sacred texts (including the Christian Bible) are currently making a re-entry in the public domain in hotly debated areas such as religion and violence, creation versus evolution, and freedom of speech versus freedom of religion, the interpretative strategies and broader hermeneutical questions underlying these debates seem to be largely ignored or at least treated without much historical consciousness. The projected two volumes aim at providing a description of historical approaches taken in the interpretation and application of the Christian Scriptures so as to provide an informed perspective on the issues involved in contemporary biblical hermeneutics. The first volume of this project, covering the beginnings of Christianity and its Umwelt up to the work of Schleiermacher, has been published (in Dutch) in 2009 at VU University Press, and eventually will be published in English. |
