The struggle for language : John's Gospel as a witness to the development of the early Christian language of faith
This thesis attempts to develop an approach to the New Testament which does justice to the New Testament as both sacred scripture of Christianity and historical human document. Based on the Lutheran and German Existentialist hermeneutical tradition language is viewed as the bearer of meaning rather than as a pointer to meaning which is to be found behind the text. This approach is relevant for the discussion of neo-Barthian as well as post-modem hermeneutics. It demands a consistent application of historical criticism, leading to a hermeneutical theology rather than the ruling of theology over against biblical interpretation. The first main part of the thesis is dedicated to the development of a theological theory of language. The thesis starts with an assessment of the Barth-Bultmann debate, where the underlying differences in their respective theories of language are analysed. It proceeds to a critical discussion of Rudolf Bultmann's hermeneutical theory, in the course of which Bultmann's theology and hermeneutics are identified as leading to a theocentric personalism. In addition, his hermeneutics are found to have important deficits in the underlying theory of language namely to ignore the role language
Jensen, Alexander Soenderup
New Testament; Barth Bultmann debate
The struggle for language : John's Gospel as a witness to the development of the early Christian language of faith. This thesis attempts to develop an approach to the New Testament which does justice to the New Testament as both sacred scripture of Christianity and historical human document. Based on the Lutheran and German Existentialist hermeneutical tradition language is viewed as the bearer of meaning rather than as a pointer to meaning which is to be found behind the text. This approach is relevant for the discussion of neo-Barthian as well as post-modem hermeneutics. It demands a consistent application of historical criticism, leading to a hermeneutical theology rather than the ruling of theology over against biblical interpretation. The first main part of the thesis is dedicated to the development of a theological theory of language. The thesis starts with an assessment of the Barth-Bultmann debate, where the underlying differences in their respective theories of language are analysed. It proceeds to a critical discussion of Rudolf Bultmann's hermeneutical theory, in the course of which Bultmann's theology and hermeneutics are identified as leading to a theocentric personalism. In addition, his hermeneutics are found to have important deficits in the underlying theory of language namely to ignore the role language
struggle language john_gospel witness development early_christian language faith attempt_develop new_testament justice new_testament sacred scripture christianity historical human document based lutheran german existentialist hermeneutical tradition language view bearer meaning rather meaning find behind text relevant discussion neo barthian well post modem hermeneutics demand consistent application historical_criticism lead hermeneutical theology rather rule theology biblical_interpretation first main_part dedicate development theological theory language start assessment barth debate underlie difference respective theory language analyse proceeds critical discussion hermeneutical theory course theology hermeneutics identify lead personalism addition hermeneutics find important deficit underlie theory language namely ignore role language