Divine Discourse
Divine Discourse
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USDProminent in the canonical texts and traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is the claim that God speaks. Nicholas Wolterstorff argues that contemporary speech-action theory, when appropriately expanded, offers us a fascinating way of interpreting this claim and showing its intelligibility. He develops an innovative theory of double-hermeneutics - along the way opposing the current near-consensus led by Ricoeur and Derrida that there is something wrong-headed about interpreting a text to find out what its author said. Wolterstorff argues that at least some of us are entitled to believe that God has spoken. Philosophers have never before, in any sustained fashion, reflected on these matters, mainly because they have mistakenly treated speech as revelation.
- Important contribution to current philosophical and theological discussion about the nature of God
- Fresh approach to major problem in Christian theology
- Based on prestigious Wilde Lectures (1993) at University of Oxford
Reviews & endorsements
"...Wolterstorff makes an important contribution to biblical hermeneutics. His work should cause all concerned readers to ponder the implications of this challenging theory." Christianity and Literature
"...the most extensive and penetrating philosophical discussion of the idea of divine speaking ever undertaken." The Princeton Seminary Bulletin
"...this rich book gives substance to the ancient Jewish conviction that God has not left us to ourselves but "speaks to us on our way," and that. accordingly, our special calling is to listen to that speech in order to hear the threats and promises, the commands and blessings, the exhortations and assertions, that God is addressing to human beings." First Things
"Wolterstorff provides the first philosophically informed look at the nature of divine communication, removing it from general theories of revelation and placing it right into the midst of common language debates of speech-act theory of J.L. Austin. This innovative position is then applied against the record of theological discourse and biblical hermeneutics....Recommended." The Reader's Review
"A careful reading of this book will provide acquaintance with the style and method characteristic of the best in contemporary anglophone philosophy of religion....[A] splendid book, a model of clear and careful argument on a very important topic in philosophical theology." Paul J. Griffiths, Anglican Theological Review
"This book, based on the Wilde Lectures at Oxford in 1993, is probably the most extensive and penetrating philosophical discussion of the idea of divine speaking ever undertaken." The Princeton Seminary Bulletin
"The subtitle of this book captures its aims very well....I recommend it...to philosophers of religion, theologians, and Biblical scholars." International Philosophical Quarterly
"...the sheer breadth of material covered, the incisiveness of Wolterstorff's analyses, and the lucidity of his prose makes this book deserving of a wider audience tha, perhaps, Wolterstorff himself may have intended." Andrew V. Jeffery
"...Wolterstorff has done in Divine Discourse what all good Christian philosophers do: He has allowed believers both inside and outside the academy to think more precisely about a topic of unspeakable existential importance-namely, what we possibly can mean when we say, with the Maggid of Mezritch, 'this is the word of the Lord.' Andrew Chignell, Books & Culture
Product details
May 2012Adobe eBook Reader
9781139238625
0 pages
0kg
This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
Table of Contents
- Preface
- 1. Locating our topic
- 2. Speaking is not revealing
- 3. The many modes of discourse
- 4. Divine discourse in the hands of theologians
- 5. What it is to speak
- 6. Could God have and acquire the rights and duties of a speaker?
- 7. Can God cause the events generative of discourse?
- 8. In defense of authorial-discourse interpretation: contra Ricoeur
- 9. In defense of authorial-discourse interpretation: contra Derrida
- 10. Performance interpretation
- 11. Interpreting the mediating human discourse: the first hermeneutic
- 12. Interpreting for the mediated divine discourse: the second hermeneutic
- 13. Has Scripture become a wax nose?
- 14. The illocutionary stance of Biblical narrative
- 15. Are we entitled?
- 16. Historical and theological afterword
- Endnotes
- Index.
