Abstract: The Christian faith is based on the Bible. Central to the traditional Christian faith is the conviction that Scripture, both the Old and New Testaments, comprises God`s word to us. But this traditional understanding of the bible has been shaken by the biblical criticism of Enlightenment that regards the Bible merely as the historical writings. This biblical criticism influenced some theologian and historians to seek historical Jesus, and caused the distinction between the historical Jesus and the biblical Christ. The biblical criticism went so far as to say that biblical Christ was a distortion of the historical Jesus. In this article I have attempted to seek the responsible biblical hermeneutics. For this, I have looked back on the history of the biblical hermeneutics, and suggested that the doctrine of the inspiration of the Bible has been central to the traditional Christian faith as held by the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and most Protestants. And I have explained that the doctrine of the inspiration of scripture is ultimately grounded in the resurrection of Jesus. This paper has also proved the biblical criticism is necessary to the theological bible reading. Nobody couldn`t deny its contribution to the biblical hermeneutics. It contributes to the understanding of the christian faith that is anchored on the historical events. Theology must accept the positive meaning of the biblical criticism, although a hardened attitude of the biblical criticism must be criticized. I have also clarified that the doctrine of the inspiration of the scriptures could accept the biblical criticism. Because in contrast to the theory of the verbal inspiration, the traditional doctrine of the inspiration could acknowledge the historical contexts and boundaries of the biblical writers. I have finally proposed as an practical alternative of the biblical hermeneutics. The study of the lectio divina leads us to the result that lectio divina could satisfy the reasonable requests of the biblical hermeneutics, although because of the meditative character this method might sound something strange to modern mind.
Publication Year: 2011
Publication Date: 2011-12-01
Language: en
Type: article
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