Rendering the Word in Theological Hermeneutics
Mapping Divine and Human Agency

This book proposes an original typology for grasping the differences between diverse types of biblical interpretation, fashioned in a triangle around a major theological and philosophical lacuna: the relation between divine and human action. Despite their purported concern for reading God's word, most modern and postmodern approaches to biblical interpretation do not seriously consider the role of divine agency as having a real influence in and on the process of reading Scripture. Mark Bowald seeks to correct and clarify this deficiency by demonstrating the inevitable role that divine agency plays in contemporary proposals in relation to human agency enacted in the composition of the biblical text and the reader. This book presents an important contribution to the emerging field of theological hermeneutics. Bowald discusses in depth the hermeneutics of George Lindbeck, Hans Frei, Kevin Vanhoozer, Francis Watson, Stephen Fowl, David Kelsey, Werner Jeanrond, Karl Barth, James K.A. Smith, and Nicholas Wolterstorff.

Chapter 1 The Eclipsing and Usurping of Divine Agency in Enlightenment Epistemology and their Influence on Scriptural Hermeneutics; Chapter 2 A Triangle Typology: Mapping Divine and Human Agency in Contemporary Theological Hermeneutics; Chapter 3 Type One: Human Agency in the “Text”; Chapter 4 Type Two: Human Agency in the “Reading”; Chapter 5 Type Three: Prioritizing Divine Agency: God’s Agency In, With, and Under Scripture and its Reading; Chapter 6 Implications of the Triangle Typology: A Modest Proposal for A Divine-Rhetorical Hermeneutics;

Mark Alan Bowald is Assistant Professor of Religion and Theology at Redeemer University College, Ancaster, Ontario, Canada.