Friday, April 20, 2007

Interpretation and Application

In Him We Proclaim, Dennis Johnson writes:
Exegesis itself is impoverished when specialization and professional pressures in the academy inculcate into faculty and students a model of biblical interpretation that aborts the process short of application, depriving it of its sweetest fruit.

. . . Just as interpretation without proclamation in the Academy is fruitless, so proclamation without sound interpretation in the pulpit is rootless.

We need to rediscover the church’s older insight, drawn from the Bible itself, that the purpose of understanding Scripture is nothing less than to believe and obey its Author, and the purpose of preaching Scripture is to ground hearers’ faith and life in the depths of wisdom, justice, and grace hidden in Christ and unveiled in infinite variety on every page.

I've only read portions of this book thus far, but based on what I've seen, I would encourage every seminarian and pastor (and others!) to purchase and digest this excellent book!