Theological Bible Commentary
Theological Bible Commentary

Theological Bible Commentary

by Gail R. O'Day and David L. Petersen

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Pages 504 pages
Publisher Westminster John Knox
Published 2009
ISBN-13 9780664227111

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As the introduction to this one-volume commentary suggests, the shape of biblical studies has experienced significant change during the last half century. The ideal, inherited from the Enlightenment, that biblical exegesis should be free from the shackles of any dogmatic theological framework prevailed in the two centuries or so of “modern” scholarship. Biblical study was to be pursued in a rigorous, “scientific” way, following where the evidence led. Scholarship “without presuppositions,” even if difficult to achieve, was the gold standard, as Rudolf Bultmann argued in an essay widely read when I was beginning doctoral study in the dark ages of the 1960s. The editors of this volume rightly note that the ethos of the contemporary scene, whether or not we describe it as “postmodern,” looks very different. Presuppositions and commitments are not only acknowledged to be an inevitable feature of scholarship; they can be important tools for meaningful engage-ment with the biblical text. To recognize the place from which one reads a text is not only an act of honesty but a foundation for effective appropriation. Presuppositions are not sacrosanct but are both inevitable and potentially productive. Biblical scholarship of the last half century is replete with this self-conscious hermeneutical stance. The variety of engaged readings is familiar. [Full Review]