Bibliographical details:
Jonker, L., and D. Lawrie, eds. (2005). Fishing for Jonah (Anew): Various Approaches to Biblical Interpretation. Study Guides in Religion and Theology, vol. 7. Stellenbosch: SUN Press.
Publisher’s information:
Fishing for Jonah (anew) introduces students of theology to a wide range of approaches or ‘methods’ in biblical interpretation, drawing on the book of Jonah for illustrations. This thoroughly revised version of Fishing for Jonah (Conradie, Jonker, Lawrie & Arendse 1992) represents both a contraction and an expansion compared to its predecessor. The elementary introduction to the theory of interpretation in Sections A and B of the previous book is now dealt with in Angling for Interpretation (Conradie & Jonker 2001), and theological hermeneutics, briefly touched on in Section D of the previous book, will become the topic of Hooked on Hermeneutics (Conradie & Smit, in preparation). On the other hand, Fishing for Jonah (anew) contains a number of new chapters and revised and expanded versions of the chapters that appeared in the previous book. The chapters are ordered so as to give readers a rough picture of the history of biblical interpretation and of the debates and problems that have shaped it. In the view of the editors, this history is not simply a story of dawning enlightenment or of decline from a pure origin. It is, instead, the story of an ongoing struggle to make sense of the Bible and of insights gained, used, abused and sometimes regained. To such a story there can be no absolute conclusion. We can neither accept one of the approaches we have inherited as a final answer, nor can we start with a clean slate. We have to read the Bible with our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers. This book introduces some of the voices to which we have to give a hearing when we seek to ‘read in community’.
Dr. Louis Jonker Is Senior Lecturer in the Department Old and New Testament, Stellenbosch University. He teaches Old Testament, and has specialized in Exegetical Methodology and Biblical Hermeneutics.
Douglas Lawrie is Associate Professor in the Department of Religion and Theology at the University of the Western Cape, where he teaches Old Testament, Rhetoric and Homiletics.
Table of contents:
CHAPTER 1: Introduction … 1
1.1 The purpose of this book … 1
1.2 The spiral of interpretation … 2
1.3 The structure of Fishing for Jonah (anew) … 4
CHAPTER 2: Classical strategies of interpretation … 7
2.1 Introduction (Louis Jonker/Ernst Conradie) … 7
2.2 Allegorical interpretation (Louis Jonker/Ernst Conradie) … 7
2.3 Typological interpretation (Louis Jonker/Ernst Conradie) … 11
2.4 Rabbinical (midrash) interpretation (Louis Jonker/Ernst Conradie) … 13
CHAPTER 3: A modern era emerges … 17
3.1 Introduction (Louis Jonker) … 17
3.2 Historical-grammatical approach (Louis Jonker) … 18
3.3 Historical-rationalist interpretation (Louis Jonker) … 22
3.4 Historical-literal interpretation (Louis Jonker) … 24
CHAPTER 4: Approaches focusing on the production of texts … 27
4.1 Introduction (Louis Jonker) … 27
4.2 Historical-critical approaches (Louis Jonker) … 29
4.3 Canonical criticism (Louis Jonker) … 45
4.4 Cultural-anthropological approaches (Louis Jonker/Roger Arendse) … 47
4.5 Socio-rhetorical criticism (Louis Jonker) … 58
CHAPTER 5: Approaches focusing on the texts themselves … 67
5.1 Introduction (Douglas Lawrie) … 67
5.2 New Criticism and related approaches (Douglas Lawrie) … 72
5.3 Structuralist approaches (Douglas Lawrie/Ernst Conradie) … 78
5.4 Narrative approaches (Louis Jonker) … 95
CHAPTER 6: Approaches focusing on the reception of texts … 109
6.1 Introduction (Douglas Lawrie) … 109
6.2 The role of the reader (Douglas Lawrie) … 112
6.3 Rhetorical-critical studies (Douglas Lawrie) … 129
6.4 Deconstructionist approaches (Douglas Lawrie) … 146
CHAPTER 7: The hermeneutics of suspicion: The hidden worlds of ideology and the unconscious … 167
7.1 Introduction (Douglas Lawrie) … 167
7.2 Psychoanalytical approaches (Douglas Lawrie) … 171
7.3 Marxist approaches (Douglas Lawrie) … 189
7.4 Feminist approaches (Franziska Andrag-Meyer/Elna Mouton) … 200
7.5 African hermeneutics (Gerald West) … 207
7.6 An ecological hermeneutics (Ernst Conradie) … 219
CHAPTER 8: Where does this leave us? … 229
8.1 Introduction … 229
8.2 Towards multidimensional interpretation … 235
8.3 Bridging the gap between academic and non-academic readings … 242
8.4 Where this book meets its boundaries … 243
EXERCISES … 245
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY … 253
Works cited and suggestions for further reading on the book of Jonah … 253
Works cited and suggestions for further reading on the exegetical approaches … 256
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