Biblical Hermeneutics,
Interpretation, & Authority of Scripture

Holger Szesnat

This website offers links to online resources for the study of Biblical hermeneutics: that is, texts and websites which, in my humble opinion, may be useful for serious biblical-hermeneutical reflection. Originally it was conceived as a single, short resource page pocket option for students on my hermeneutics-related courses (see below), but as it grew and grew I eventually realised that this might be of interest to a broader audience as well.

So what exactly is this website all about? After all, Biblical hermeneutics can be defined in at least two main ways: firstly, as 'methods of interpretation', which is perhaps closer to the ancient understanding of the Greek verb ἑρμενευειν (hERMENEUEIN) - thus Biblical hermeneutics is understood as virtually synonymous with "methodology of Biblical interpretation", specifically in the sense of devising 'rules' for 'correct Biblical interpretation' (this use of the term tends to be popular in conservative circles); secondly, taking into account the use of the term "hermeneutics" especially since Schleiermacher, 'Biblical hermeneutics' can be understood in a much broader sense as the fundamental philosophical and theological assumptions 'behind' different methods of interpretation.

The focus of this site will be on resources associated with the latter understanding of Biblical hermeneutics (if you are looking for the former, you might want to begin with Andrew Kulikovsky's site, hermeneutics.kulikovskyonline.net) — and as with all links on my site, please do not interpret a link as an endorsement on my part (as it happens, I would disagree with most views expressed on Kulikowsky's site). I only endorse my own views, and often not even those. Anyway, since hermeneutics in the broader sense in which I use pocket option download for windows 10 it here frequently brings up the problem of methods of interpretation, as well as the classic problem of the authority of Scripture, these will also be taken into account on this site.

If you come across a text or website that you would like to see listed on this site, please let me know. (Alas, having run this website for four years now, this has only happened once...) Also, if you notice a broken link, please tell me : I do not have the time to check on the links as much as I should, but there are only 24 hours in a day.

There are two main sections: a public page accessible to ... wait for it... yes, the general public, and another, restricted access page which is available only to my students. (In order to get access to the restricted page, you need a username and password; if you don't have these yet, let me know.) The public page has links to texts and websites which are freely available to anyone with internet access; the restricted access page offers specific information for students on hermeneutics-related courses I teach from time to time, namely:

• Anglia Ruskin University / Cambridge Theological Federation MA in Pastoral Theology course M904, "Biblical Hermeneutics";
• Cambridge Theological Federation degree and certificate course B19/C20, "Biblical Interpretation and Authority"; and
• some of the new study modules (especially Texts and Practice now offered within the B.A. in Christian Theology at Anglia Ruskin University, delivered by the Cambridge Theological Federation.

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Biblical hermeneutics is a pocket option opinioni complex field. Lest we get hood-winked by big words and names, consider the 'Sokal scandal'. The value of Sokal's fake paper is limited by the fact that he published it in a journal that had deliberately abandoned the peer-review process, but Sokal still shows that if you are persistent enough, you can get away with a lot of nonsense.

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On a completely different note: I recommend using the catalogue of Tyndale House, Cambridge, for Biblical research. The catalogue has integrated links to google 'book view' and amazon 'search inside', which I find very helpful. You can also integrate the catalogue search facility in your browser: for Internet Explorer 7, see the Tyndale Tech e-mail (January 2007); for Mozilla Firefox 2, I have written two simple XML files to act as search engine plugins. To install them, just click on the search plugin box in your Firefox browser (probably in the top right corner), and you should see the options to install the 'author' or 'title words' search plugins listed there. Let me know if you find any problems with those. The files that will be downloaded are two small (2KB) XML files - feel free to adapt them to your liking. Direct links: title words search and author search

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Website originally created in April 2003.
My web-philosophy