The Act of Bible Reading: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Biblical Interpretation [Paperback]

Elmer Dyck (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 22, 1996

Many approaches for interpreting the Bible have been put forth in recent years. All have their strengths--and their weaknesses. The Act of Bible Reading combines the strengths of several of these approaches into one volume which will enrich our reading of the Bible. Gordon Fee and Elmer Dyck discuss history and canon, respectively, as contexts for interpretation, highlighting the importance of historical-grammatical interpretation within a canonical setting for understanding biblical texts. J. I. Packer explores the importance of theology, both as it informs and as it safeguards Bible reading. Craig M. Gay proffers key insights from sociology, especially the sociology of knowledge, as it cautions us to ask not only what the text says, but who says it says that and why should we believe what they are telling us it says. Facing the challenges of modern secular hermeneutics from Heidigger and Nietzsche to Derrida and Foucault, Loren Wilkinson counters the postmodern reaction against truth. James Houston argues that the aim of Bible reading must be godliness and not mere scholarship. And Eugene Peterson then responds to the collection of insights as a whole. For readers who want to take the next steps in understanding the Bible for themselves, here is here is a not-to-be-missed opportunity to benefit from the combined insight of a distinguished group of teachers.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Elmer Joy (who has published books with IVP under the name Elmer Dyck) is a real estate broker in Kelowna, British Columbia. He recently served as provost of Lithuania Christian College. He has also served as business administrator and coordinator for Christian formation and congregational development for the diocese of New Westminster in Vancouver, British Columbia. Formerly he was academic dean and assistant professor of biblical studies at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 182 pages
• Publisher: IVP Academic (April 22, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0830816232
• ISBN-13: 978-0830816231
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,533,326 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book Demands Great Readers, June 16, 2000

By 

Dennis Siu Leung Wong - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Act of Bible Reading: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Biblical Interpretation (Paperback)

Amongst numerous hermeneutics Books in stores, this one is quite different from others.

Using the multidisciplinary approach, it starts with the historical perspective and canonical approach in the first two chapters. Each chapter also spends a good length for a detail and scholarly illustration of both approaches. The subsequent chapter discusses the theological perspective of Bible reading. In tackling the misconception that theology is unrelated to Bible reading, or even causes bad influence to Christian lives, Packer argues why these are not truth and illustrates how theology nurtures our Bible reading and rescues us from being lost when in the "forest" of the Bible.

The book then discusses Bible reading from a wider context, the sociological, postmodernism perpectives and finally back to context of the reader, the prespective of spirituality: a discussion on the act of Bible reading from a comprehensive context.

The book is an exellent one and the authors offer many sound points, especially the last three chapters. The authors successfully relates Bible reading in the culture of our modern/postmodern world and point out the blindspot of our culture and provide a new perspective using the good "old" truth of the Bible. For example, in the chapter of "postmodern truth", the writer first pointed out the blindspots of both modernism and postmodernism. The former treats the world as an engine, using the same way to extract what we want from the world thus becoming the "metanarrative" of others. The latter is too pessimistic that knowledge is only a construction and there is no truth. Using the fact that human being is only part of the creation, knowledge is not a human construct but a response to our world. As the creation, truth is comprehensible, although not ultimate, but still enough for us to communicate with the world. Moreover, our fallen human nature results that human being uses knowledge to the good as well as the bad. While the postmodernism holds the idea that knowledge only serves a purpose to obtain power to suspress/control others, we cannot ignore the other side of the truth as previously mentioned.

In view of readibility, I would give a relatively lower score. Probably, this is caused by the apporach it used. Although multidisciplinary approach gives many different perspectives on Bible reading, written from the hand of the scholars, it also demands the readers equipped with multidisciplinary basic background knowledge. For instance, the basic knowledge of postmodernism, existentialism, Marxism and so forth. In addition, a good basic theological knowledge is important to understand the points made by the readers or else it is very difficult to follow the points made by the author.