Heaven on Earth?: Theological Interpretation in Ecumenical Dialogue

This ecumenical collection brings together eleven leading Catholic and evangelical theologians in a discussion of the benefits – and potential drawbacks – of today’s burgeoning corpus of theological interpretation. The authors address the question of whether this rapid growth of commentary and analysis deepens the Christian community’s understanding of scriptural history or threatens to distance us from that history and to produce an ahistorical faith. Much rests on how historical reading of Scripture can hope to enter into Scripture’s own understanding of history as providentially governed and as already participating, despite appearances, in Christ’s eschatological victory. The essays provide diverse theological and exegetical perspectives on the relationship between earthly time and its heavenly source and goal, between this–worldly narratives and spiritual realities. The varied backgrounds of the authors, and their differing areas of expertise, make this collection a truly wide–ranging theological debate about the kinds of scriptural exegesis that Christians today ought to be pursuing. The retrieval of patristic voices is here shown to be a notable dimension not only of Catholic theology but also of evangelical theology. Yet important differences remain regarding how far spiritual interpretation can proceed without losing touch with Scripture’s original contexts and purposes. Covering topics that range from contemporary typological exegesis to the Christological hermeneutics of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the anthology expresses a shared concern to identify the work of God in the fabric of the temporal world.

Introduction: Spiritual Interpretation and Realigned Temporality 1 HANS BOERSMA and MATTHEW LEVERING Part I—Reading the Fathers 11 1 “In Many and Various Ways”: Towards A Theology of Theological Exegesis 13 BRIAN E. DALEY, SJ 2 “There’s Fire in That Rain”: On Reading the Letter and Reading Allegorically 33 LEWIS AYRES 3 Origen against History? Reconsidering the Critique of Allegory 53 PETER W. MARTENS 4 “This Is the Day Which the Lord Has Made”: Scripture, Manumission, and the Heavenly Future in Saint Gregory of Nyssa 75 HANS BOERSMA Part II—Reading Scripture 91 5 Imperial Lover: The Unveiling of Jesus Christ in Revelation 93 PETER J. LEITHART 6 Translation and Transcendence: The Fragile Future of Spiritual Interpretation 109 DAVID LYLE JEFFREY 7 Readings on the Rock: Typological Exegesis in Contemporary Scholarship 129 MATTHEW LEVERING Part III—Reading in Contemporary Context 155 8 The Self–Critique of the Historical–Critical Method: Cardinal Ratzinger’s Erasmus Lecture 157 MICHAEL MARIA WALDSTEIN 9 Profi ling Christ: The Psalms of Abandonment 173 FRANCESCA A. MURPHY 10 Reading the Book of the Church: Bonhoeffer’s Christological Hermeneutics 189 JENS ZIMMERMANN 11 “Ascending the Mountain, Singing the Rock: Biblical Interpretation Earthed, Typed, and Transfigured” 207 KEVIN J. VANHOOZER Index 231

Hans Boersma holds the J. I. Packer Chair in Theology at Regent College, Canada, and is co–director (with Matthew Levering) of the Center for Catholic–Evangelical Dialogue. As well as this volume and a forthcoming publication on Gregory of Nyssa, he is the author of Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry (2011), Nouvelle Théologie and Sacramental Ontology: A Return to Mystery (2009), and Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross: Reappropriating the Atonement Tradition (2004). Prof Boersma is a member of the Langley Immanuel Christian Reformed Church. Matthew Levering is Professor of Theology at the University of Dayton, USA, where he is also director of the Center for Scriptural Exegesis, Philosophy, and Doctrine. Co–editor since 2003 of the theological journal Nova et Vetera , he has also recently joined the editorial team of the International Journal of Systematic Theology . Prof Levering has served as Chair of the Board of the Academy of Catholic Theology since 2007 and co–directs the Center for Catholic–Evangelical dialogue alongside Prof Boersma. His numerous books and publications include most recently The Feminine Genius of Catholic Theology (2012), Jesus and the Demise of Death (2012), and Predestination (2011). Forthcoming publications include volumes on St. Paul and Thomas Aquinas and on the theology of Augustine.