Redemptive-Historical hermeneutic resources

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timfost

Puritan Board Senior
Hi all,

Are there any good online sources for understanding the specifics of the Redemptive-Hisotrical hermeneutic? What other resources would you recommend?

Thanks!
 
Best stops: Graeme Goldsworthy's works: his Trilogy, and his Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics, and his Christ-Centered Biblical Theology. Then there is Ed Clowney's The Unfolding Mystery. Vos's Biblical Theology is essential reading. Dennis Johnson's Him We Proclaim is excellent as well. That will get you started, and then follow up on the footnoted resources that intrigue you in the newer works (Vos doesn't quote a lot of resources).
 
Here is conference lecture pushing back on some of the misuses/abuses and or errors of RH preaching.

https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=68101148582

Yes. I've sat under such RH preachers (not speaking of those who use RH elements in their preaching) who leave out any exhortation to the listeners to conform themselves to the will of God as expressed in the Word - decrying that as "moralistic".

I listened to some guy recently that tried to say that the story of Samson was only to be preached as a type of Jesus Christ. I almost pulled out what little hair I have left. Nevermind the very context of Hebrews 11 & 12 suggests a different way to consider Samson. Not to mention 1 Corinthians 10:11.

I sat under an RH preacher for about a year and a half and could predict exactly what would be said in the sermon just by glancing at the sermon text. There was never an appeal to conform ourselves to Christ's image. Just a vague "look to Jesus Christ" statement at the end of every sermon.
 
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Rom, there is no doubt that some lazy preachers do preach just like that. In my opinion that is a betrayal of the redemptive-historical hermeneutic in preaching, not an advocacy of it.
 
Are extreme RH preachers those that object as going beyond scripture to make extended applications as the puritans did?
 
Best stops: Graeme Goldsworthy's works: his Trilogy, and his Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics, and his Christ-Centered Biblical Theology. Then there is Ed Clowney's The Unfolding Mystery.
Lane, I read his Christ-Centered Biblical Theology some years ago (I don't have the book now so relying on my memory!) but I got the impressin his covenant theology was not as well developed as Vos or Beale. He is a Sydney Anglican. No doubt he upholds the 39 Articles, but unsure if he holds to the more full-orbed covenant theology of the Westminster Confession. Would not Greg Beale's Biblical Theology be better than Goldsworthy? Vos finishes his Biblical Theology at Jesus' public ministry. It seems to me that Beale's work nicely follows on from this.

I can say though, that I really enjoyed Goldsworthy's Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics.

Vos's Biblical Theology is essential reading.
Agreed. There is a nice discussion of Vos' work at the Reformed Forum https://reformedforum.org/category/series/vos-group/

Perhaps my favorite place to recommend people start is Geerhardus Vos's Inaugural Address: The Idea of Biblical Theology as a Science and as a Theological Discipline.
Agreed. Vos wrote this early in his ministry. It is a very good discussion of Biblical Theology. The Vos group discussion I mentioned discusses how Vos developed his Biblical Theology from the early days in the 1890's until when he wrote his full book on Biblical Theology.
 
Are there any good online sources

As mentioned, the very best sources are books rather than online resources. But if you're looking for online material in particular, you might start at Beginning with Moses.

The Reformed Forum is also run by guys who have an RH, Vos-informed mindset, and I highly recommend poking around their site. I don't know whether or not you are interested in audio resources, but if you are, the Proclaiming Christ podcast and the "Vos Group" discussions on the Christ the Center podcast are consistently some of the best examples of how to practice this hermeneutic. The hermeneutic may be best learned by example rather than by explanation.
 
Rom, there is no doubt that some lazy preachers do preach just like that. In my opinion that is a betrayal of the redemptive-historical hermeneutic in preaching, not an advocacy of it.

Lane,

I appreciate this. That's a reason I attempted to qualify my remarks. But I think in some quarters it isn't simply laziness. The minister that I sat under, took pride in the fact that he wouldn't preach application -- he found that to be moralistic. He would spend a lot of time on his exegesis and connecting dots (no matter how tenuous or creative) between the passage and Christ.

If this betrays the RH school, I have no quarrel with that, unfortunately, men like my former pastor tend to "self-identify" with the school.
 
Stephen, if one wants an exposition of covenant theology, I agree that Goldsworthy is not the best place to go. However, that was not the query of the OP, which was on the RH hermeneutic, and very few have delved that topic as well or deeply as Goldsworthy.
 
Stephen, if one wants an exposition of covenant theology, I agree that Goldsworthy is not the best place to go. However, that was not the query of the OP, which was on the RH hermeneutic
Just to clarify Lane, it was in Goldsworthy's 'Christ-Centered Biblical Theology' where he made his comments on covenant theology which is why I found the book itself a little off putting (perhaps I did not fully appreciate the rest of the book in spite of his covenant theology). Instead I turned to Greg Beales NT Biblical Theology which to me nicely followed on from Vos. Also I found in chapter 27 where Beale makes a number of helpful observations on covenant theology and its relationship to biblical theology, very insightful.
 
Can't speak highly enough of Vos.

From a human perspective, he's why I'm Reformed today.

I was working on an MA in Biblical Studies at a fundamentalist Bible college when I stumbled across a worn copy of his Biblical Theology in our library. I started reading it independently and realized I'd never read anything like this before. It made sense of so much of the OT--which had been largely a closed book to me as a dispensationalist.
 
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