I apologize in advance if this is not the right place to ask the question...please move to the appropriate place if necessary.

Please recommend a good advanced work on hermeneutics, specifically the principles and guidelines for an objective hermeneutic in our postmodern environment.

I've been recommended Thomas Howe's Objectivity in Biblical Interpretation. Seeing as he co-authored a couple of books with Norm Geisler I'm slighty cautious, given Geisler's history of being less than reformed. Has anyone read it, and what did you think of it?

Thanks.

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John Steyn
Redeemer Presbytarian Church, PCA
Frisco, TX

http://omnipotentgrace.wordpress.com/

Louis Berkhof's book on hermenuetics was one that had been recommended to me 25 years ago. I can't rememeber the exact name -I think it was biblical hermentuetics-and was very good. I went to look for it on my shelves and I can't find it. Whoever have I loaned it to? There was also another one co-authored by MS Terry and someone else also called Biblical Hermeneutics -that too seems to have disappeared from my shelves.

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Stuart
Elder, Lambeg Baptist, Northern Ireland, UK

In Him the fulness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form and in Him you are complete (Col 2.9-10)

The sacrifice of a broken heart doth please Him but the sacrifice of a broken Christ alone doth satisfy Him (Richard Steele)

I'm not the one you would want to talk to on really good books on hermanuetics, but I would like to say that I have benefited from reading hermeneutics books written by Arminians before. I think we sometimes can treat Arminian brethren as being so blind to their theological shortcomings, when some are very humble about them.

Having said that, I completely understand the part about being careful while ready Geisler. You can choose to read him, but are free to disagree!

Gospel-centered Hermeneutics, Graeme Goldsworthy.

IMO, this is the best available.

Review here.

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Wes Bredenhof
Co-pastor, Langley Canadian Reformed Church
Langley, British Columbia
www.bredenhof.ca

Milton S. Terry - Bilblical Hermeneutics (470 pages)
and
Milton S. Terry - Biblical Apocolyptics (509 pages)

These are the two best books on biblical interpretation...period. (note. if I was stuck on a deserted island I would be perfectly content with these books and the bible...I would have all I need...the other thousand or so books in my library do nothing but repeat in one way or another what can be learned from these two books and the bible)

They can be purchased at
AmericanVision.org

Biblical Apocalyptics
http://www.americanvision.com/index....OD&ProdID=1465

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Shawn Atkins
Member, Parkhill Presbyterian Church (OPC)
Denver, Colorado

Open my eyes Lord, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. Psalm 119:18

Thanks very much Shawn. I'm looking at getting a book on hermeneutics as well. I've not heard of or read Terry's book on hermeneutics that you cite above. In your opinion, what makes it stand out from others on the topic?

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Joel Batts
Christ Presbyterian Church (PCA) - Memphis, TN

"Why wasn't God watching? Why wasn't God listening? Why wasn't God there for Georgia Lee?"
- Tom Waits
But you, O God, do see trouble and grief;you consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless. - Psalm 10:14

Thanks for the suggestions. I will look into them.

Just a note to danmpem, I actually have 3 of Geisler's Systematic Theology volumes in my bookshelf. Some of his historical and theoretical background work is good, but of course I don't agree with all of his conclusions. I've also learned quite a bit from him on the apologetics side...specifically on addressing atheist arguments.

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John Steyn
Redeemer Presbytarian Church, PCA
Frisco, TX

http://omnipotentgrace.wordpress.com/

It is complete..both historically and technically. It is sober and pushes no agenda. It gives a history of hermeneutics as well as many scriptural examples of proper exegesis.
And what really sets it apart is that the author does not write from a theological "camp," but shows what true exegesis is. it is very outside the "box."

Note: It was written in the late 1800s

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Shawn Atkins
Member, Parkhill Presbyterian Church (OPC)
Denver, Colorado

Open my eyes Lord, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. Psalm 119:18

Bahnsen also used Terry's works when he taught hermeneutics at RTS in the late 70's. One should be careful to get the 700+ page version of Bilblical Hermeneutics, which I believe has the additional history of interpretation.

CT

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Hermonta Godwin
Christ The King PCA
Raleigh, NC

Yes, I've heard he is quite good at introductory books on the gospel.

I am sometimes humbled when I think about him. He is a teacher of the Word, and I believe he is in error on much of what he teaches; but, I do understand that he is justified and covered by the blood of Christ. While I like to sit back in my computer chair and over his "moderate Calvinism", I will be with him, in the presence and glory of God, as my brother in Christ for everlasting. Sorry if that sounds mushy to some, but it's the truth. The thought helps me be mindful of my words toward and about other teachers of the Word.

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Dan Pemberton
Vacaville, CA

Member, First Baptist Church San Luis Obispo
Formerly ABUSA (We left, so I guess that makes us American Baptists Unleashed!)

Anthony Thiselton's work is good. The Two Horizons, New Horizons in Hermeneutics, The Hermeneutics of Doctrine, etc... he is probably the best scholar to consult on philosophical hermeneutics. Is There Meaning in This Text by Kevin Vanhoozer is also good. The Fabric of Theology by Richard Lints is a gem as well... cheers.

-Josiah

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Josiah
member, Third Avenue Baptist Church
Louisville, KY

http://www.carver319.com
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tolle lege, tolle lege

Ditto on Vanhoozer. Anything by him. Lints covers the issues thoroughly, but I disagree with him that we can arrive at a pure understanding/reading.

This book is more of a book on the nature of hermeneutics itself, rather than biblical hermeneutics. Notwithstanding, it had the metaphorical effect of a landmine. I still haven't gotten myself together.
Amazon.com: The Fall of Interpretation:...

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J. B. Atken
John Knox PCA
Layman, M.A. student at Louisiana College

That reminds me...does anybody know the hermeneutics textbook that was used at WTS Philly from 69-74?

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In Christ's love and service

Mr. Tim Cunningham, Dip. CS (Regent College)
Member, First Baptist Church
Vancouver, BC

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"The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellar of 1500-year-old, 200 proof grace—a bottle after bottle of pure distillate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly. The word of the gospel—after all these centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection of your own bootstraps—suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home-free before they started. Grace was to be drunk neat: no water, no ice, and certainly no ginger ale." – Robert Farrar Capon

I would recommend...

Louis Berkhof, Principles of Biblical Interpretation (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 16th printing, 1980).

Bernard Ramm, Protestant Biblical Interpretation: A Textbook of Hermeneutics, 3rd rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 17th printing, 1987).

Gerhard Maier, Biblical Hermeneutics, trans. Robert W. Yarbrough (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1994).

Gerhard Maier, The End of the Historical Critical Method, trans. Edwin W. Leverenz and Rudolph F. Norden (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1977).

DTK

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Sola Scriptura est norma normans non normata
David T. King, pastor
Christ Presbyterian Church (OPC)
Elkton, Maryland
Augustine (354-430): Therefore what He [i.e., Christ] has deigned to speak to us, we ought to believe that He meant us to understand. But if we do not understand He, being asked, gives understanding, who gave His Word unasked. NPNF1: Vol. VII, Tractates on John, Tractate XXII, §1.

Why would it matter?

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Benjamin P. Glaser
Pittsburgh, PA
Fairmount ARP Church
Student of Theology
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary
My Blog

"Nothing is sweet to me without the enjoyment of Christ in it." -- Thomas Brooks

Knowing the textbook he used would tie off a minor loose end in my study of Bahnsen's Theonomy in Christian Ethics.

__________________
In Christ's love and service

Mr. Tim Cunningham, Dip. CS (Regent College)
Member, First Baptist Church
Vancouver, BC

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"The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellar of 1500-year-old, 200 proof grace—a bottle after bottle of pure distillate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly. The word of the gospel—after all these centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection of your own bootstraps—suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home-free before they started. Grace was to be drunk neat: no water, no ice, and certainly no ginger ale." – Robert Farrar Capon

Would you have a chapter in there bashing WTS? That would be funny!

[I am not being derogatory]

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J. B. Atken
John Knox PCA
Layman, M.A. student at Louisiana College