ATR/102.2
The New Hermeneutical Situation Paul Allen*
Reading the Bible Theologically. By Darren Sarisky. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019. xix + 407 pp. $125. Darren Sarisky has written an important monograph that challenges several interwoven ideas concerning biblical interpretation among contemporary biblical scholars and theologians. This new volume, a sequel to an earlier study of scriptural interpretation that focused quite a bit on the legacy of Basil of Caesarea, expands his treatment of the theological interpretation of the Bible with the assistance of Augustine of Hippo and several modern theologians. Sarisky’s leading idea is that the Bible is best understood as a set of signs for depicting God and God’s actions. He develops this semiotic position in a reflective and painstaking style that he terms a “via media” between the theological interpretation of Scripture movement, on the one hand, and the set of historically based views on the other hand. His primary concern is to diagnose the main problem with biblical scholarship, which is its methodological naturalism. Some theologians responding to the reigning naturalism of the biblical guild have overreacted by emphasizing doctrinal meaning at the expense of taking seriously what the biblical texts have meant in the past, according to Sarisky. Sarisky believes that current longstanding discussions about the interpretation of the Bible can be resolved by attending to a theological anthropology of the reader depicted by Augustine, who was
* Paul Allen is Dean at Corpus Christi College at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. His scholarly work is situated in the fields of science-theology dialogue, theological anthropology, and systematic theology. Publications include Ernan McMullin and Critical Realism in the Science-Theology Dialogue (2006) and Theological Method: A Guide for the Perplexed (2012). Articles have appeared in such journals as Heythrop Journal of Theology, Ex Auditu, Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie, and American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly. He is currently working on a three-part systematic theological anthropology, and he is subject editor for the forthcoming T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Christian Theology.
301