The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative: A Study in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Hermeneutics [Paperback]

Hans W. Frei (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 365 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; New edition edition (September 10, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300026021
• ISBN-13: 978-0300026023
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #115,933 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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86 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Classic Work in Narrative Theology, April 24, 2000

By 

Richard Young (Chattanooga, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative: A Study in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Hermeneutics (Paperback)

Hans Frei argues that questioning the historicity of the biblical documents in the modern era has led to the loss of the integrity of the narrative structure. This has shifted meaning from the patterns and structure of the narrative itself to external reference. Frei argues that this takes two forms. Those who argued for the historicity of the documents found meaning in the historical events themselves, while those who denied the historicity found meaning in the symbolic ideas or concepts that supposedly lie behind the myths. Both locate meaning outside the text. In response, Frei contends that Scripture is a realistic narrative (i.e., history-like). A realistic narrative firmly sets its characters and actions within the context of their historical and social context. Even the miraculous episodes are realistic if they help render a particular character or story. The history-like realism draws us into the story with the result that the story shapes our lives. The power of narrative is lost when meaning is located outside the narrative: in ideals, doctrines, or historical facts. This is a must read for anyone interested in narrative theology. It is the classic text in the field, from which all other works owe their inspiration.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Meaning is Constituted in the Narrative!, December 3, 2011

By 

Michael Metts - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative: A Study in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Hermeneutics (Paperback)

The primary critique throughout Hans Frei's Eclipse book is the divorce of the narratives of Holy Scripture from meaning, or subject matter (for the book in outline, pp. 5-8; for Calvin and Luther, 23-24; on precritical interpretation in general, 28 and 37; post-Reformation Protestantism, 41; Spinoza, 46; Cocceius, 48; the early Enlightenment in England and Germany, 64; the "Supernaturalist," or historical and ostensive reference thinkers, 87, 91; German idealism, 101; apologetic and historical criticism, 135; Pietism, 156; Gabler, 166; Zacharia, 172; Bengel, 176; heilsgeschichtliche Schule, 181; Herder, 191; German realism, 218; for Pietists, Deists, Idealists, and Realists in general, 220; on Strauss and "myth", 240; and, finally, offering a clearer picture, Frei outlines three distinct proposals for identification of the subject matter: ostensive, 256-261; forms of idealism, 261-64; and, thirdly, the mythical option, 264-65; he continues with the beginnings of narrative meaning, 273; Strauss and narrative, 275; criticisms of these narrative ventures, 278; and, finally, presents his own narrative view, 280).

Chapter 13 seems to best organize the overall content of the book and illustrate the point that Frei is making. By understanding and successfully demonstrating the central problem to be, simply, a loss of narrative meaning, his assessment, as he wisely navigates a difficult history of interpretation, proves a very elegant one. Few thinkers are this insightful or gifted as to reduce an entire history of discussion and dialog to one succinctly stated criticism. While chapter 13 is technically about subject matter proposals for Scripture at the turn of the nineteenth century, it can function as a helpful summary of the Enlightenment discussion on Scriptural meaning illustrating Frei's main point.

First, there are those who take the meaning of Scripture ostensively, and in this group Frei presents the so-called Supernaturalists, who are literal interpreters magnifying authorial intent. It is the concern for the credibility of the reports of miracles that characterizes thinkers in this camp, in addition to their increasing focus, as a result of their literalism, on the meaning of the actual words of Scripture. In this first group are also naturalists, who "dropped the literalistic interpretation of individual miraculous reports and, of course, the promise-fulfillment scheme. But they still believed that the meanings of the narratives are the occurrences in the spatiotemporal world to which they refer" (260). And, then there were those who thought the same as the naturalists but perceived an intentional deception lurking behind the history of the text (Reimarus).

The second group Frei discusses rejects the meaning of Scripture as ostensive in nature wholesale. It is, rather, Scripture's religious or moral truth that is meaningful (ideological). Among this group of thinkers were those who thought authorial intention was determinate for meaning (Zacharia is in this group), and those who disagreed (thinkers like Kant were in this camp).

Lastly, there are the "mythophiles" (264). This curious group found meaning, not as ostensively offered, nor in the ideas of the biblical literature itself, but in the so-called consciousness that Scripture presents (265). This is a psychological category of understanding.

Frei seems to reject categorizing theories of subject matter, as well as reductionistic ones (280). Meaning is not reducible, but constituted by the very narrative web of Scripture (280). It is not a "profound, buried stratum underneath [that] constitutes or determines the subject matter itself" (280). In my view, the book proper ends here at 280, with chapter 15 behaving as a sort of curious addendum addressing the legacy of Schleiermacher. Frei does not seem to develop his theory in this last section, but he might be attempting to bring the reader up to date on more contemporary discussion.