Making Sense of New Testament Theology: "Modern" Problems and Prospects (Studies in American Biblical Hermeneutics) [Paperback]

A K M Adam (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers (January 7, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597520411
• ISBN-13: 978-1597520416
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 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: #2,315,319 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A K M Adam is Lecturer in New Testament at the University of Glasgow, a theologian, author, priest, technologist and blogger. He has served academic appointments as Professor of New Testament at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, Visiting Prof. of New Testament at Duke University Divinity School, Assistant Prof. of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary, and Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Eckerd College; he has served at the Cathedral Church of St Mary in Glasgow, Scotland, St Luke's Church, Evanston IL, St James Church, Tampa, Christ Church FL, New Haven CT, and has assisted in numerous other parishes and ministries . He is a writer, speaker, and provocateur who simultaneously engages the worlds of theology and technology on topics including postmodern philosophy, hermeneutics, education, and the semiotics of meaning and truth.

He has given invited presentations on technology at Digital Identity World, the Freedom To Connect conference, Ars Electronica Festival, and the Society for Scholarly Publishing.

He supports Duke University's basketball team, Bowdoin College hockey, the Baltimore Orioles, and the Boston Celtics, but it studiously non-partisan when it comes to the Rangers and Celtic.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Still a Modernist Program, December 17, 2011

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This review is from: Making Sense of New Testament Theology: "Modern" Problems and Prospects (Studies in American Biblical Hermeneutics) (Paperback)

For those turning to A.K.M. Adam, I believe this is a better written book than "Faithful Interpretation: Reading the Bible in a Postmodern World." However, it still lacks the force that I believe Adam intends it convey to his audience on the necessity of abandoning modernist commitments.

My reasons for seeing a lack of potency:
1. Although Adam disparages the modernist program, which he identifies as - a. commitment to the new, b. a preoccupation with time, c. an appeal to distinctive warrants, and d. dependence on the expert as authoritative over the non-expert- he never successfully distances himself from these same commitments in his approach. For example, the entire book is written in an academic style reminiscent of the modernist authorities. Not one chapter appears without footnotes, yet if we were to assume he was forming a new biblical theology not based on authority, then we would find a chapter devoid of the old methodology. This is just one of the methodological problems which lead me to believe Adam himself is still entrenched in modernity.
2. Adam does not adequately deal with the humanistic foundations of modernity. Postmodern ideas related to legitimacy and plurality may still pose a problem for those theologians and biblical scholars who see the fatal flaw of both modernism and postmodernism as an obsession with human concerns. In this sense, postmodernism is just the newest brand of modernism. Adam really does not even touch on this subject.
3. Issues of meaning and interpretations are purely and necessarily contextual for Adam. He understands this to mean that there is no transcendent meaning or interpretation to a text (e.g. pg. 178). This is a modernist presupposition. Why? Because it depends on the reality of human reason and rationality which are contextually driven and developed through social means to assent to the lack of transcendence. Postmodern thought is just the skeptical child of optimistic modernity.

Despite the problems with Adam's book, I would still highly recommend it. He articulately shows why he is abandoning what has been the majority approach to biblical theology in the last 100 years. My major problems with the book are of substance and presupposition, not of style or clarity. Chapter 1 "A Physiognomy of Modernity" is most helpful for understanding problems in recent (modernist) approaches in the field, and Chapter 5 "The Philosophical Erosion of Modernity" shows readers why some postmodernist readers are upset with the modernist program. I highly recommend these chapters to better understand the perspectives found within.