Is there a meaning in this text?

About This Book

Is there a meaning in the Bible, or is meaning rather a matter of who is reading or of how one reads? Does Christian doctrine have anything to contribute to debates about interpretation, literary theory, and postmodernity? These are questions of crucial importance for contemporary biblical studies and theology alike. Kevin Vanhoozer contends that the postmodern crisis in hermeneutics - "incredulity towards meaning," a deep-set skepticism concerning the possibility of correct interpretation is fundamentally a crisis in theology provoked by an inadequate view of God and by the announcement of God's "death." -- Jacket Is There a Meaning in This Text? is a comprehensive and creative analysis of debates over biblical hermeneutics that draws on interdisciplinary resources, all coordinated by Christian theology. It revitalizes and enlarges the concept of author-oriented interpretation and restores confidence that readers of the Bible can reach understanding. The result is a major challenge to the central assumptions of postmodern biblical scholarship and a constructive alternative proposal -- an Augustinian hermeneutic -- that reinvigorates the notion of biblical authority and finds a new exegetical practice that recognizes the importance of both the reader's situation and the literal sense. Kevin Vanhoozer's Is There a Meaning in This Text? has established itself as the premier treatment of biblical hermeneutics, a significant contribution that will be of interest to readers in a number of fields. This tenth anniversary edition includes a new preface by Vanhoozer and a foreword by Craig L. Blomberg. -- Back cover