Befriending Scripture: Sidways Glances at a Theology of Reading

What are the unspoken assumptions that animate and give rise to current discussions about theological hermeneutics?

What cultures of reading are currently at play in the Church and the academy? What cultures of reading ought to be at play? In Befriending Scripture, Jonathan Rowlands suggests that much modern biblical hermeneutics has paid insufficient attention to the foundations of theological reading. For theological interpretation to make meaningful progress in both methodology and results, the very foundations of what it means to read, and to read theologically, must be examined and articulated afresh.

In this detailed and wide-ranging work, Rowlands addresses various topics relating to the Scripture’s reading in the Church, including questions of Scripture’s ontology, biblical hermeneutics, literary theory, antisemitism, historiography, and spiritual formation, amongst others. By rethinking Theological Interpretation of Scripture from its very foundations, Rowlands mediates between historical and theological approaches. In doing so, he offers a vision for theological reading that bridges the continuing disciplinary divide between biblical studies and systematic theology.

Jonathan Rowlands is Graduate Tutor and Lecturer in Theology at St. Mellitus College, UK