Scripture, Canon & Figural Reading
How can historical and theological interpretation correct rather than cancel one another?
Christian Scripture is a historically mediated canon whose literal sense is opened, not bypassed, by its christological and ecclesial use.
This seminar treats Scripture as historical texts received as one canon. It trains a reading practice in which philological discipline and theological interpretation correct one another rather than competing for ownership of the text.
- 01
Relate literal, canonical, and figural senses
- 02
Distinguish figural reading from arbitrary allegory
- 03
Construct a warranted theological reading of a biblical text
- 01
Text, event, canon
The literal sense includes what words do within their historical discourse and the canonical form in which the church receives them.
- 02
The rule of faith
The rule of faith functions as a grammar of the whole, not a shortcut around difficult particulars.
- 03
Figure and fulfillment
Figural reading perceives real historical correspondences ordered by divine providence and disclosed retrospectively.
- 04
A fourfold accountability
Theological exegesis answers to history, literary form, canonical relations, and contemporary consequence.