Description
Recent theological discussions between Roman Catholics and Evangelicals have generated a renewed appreciation for God’s ongoing use of Scripture for self-mediation to the Church. Noting the significant influence of Henri de Lubac (one of the drafters of Dei Verbum and proponent of a renewal of the patristic and Medieval emphasis on a spiritual sense of Scripture), and Kevin Vanhoozer (the leading Evangelical proponent of a theological interpretation of Scripture), Kevin Storer seeks to draw Evangelical and Roman Catholic theologians into dialogue about God’s ongoing use of Scripture in the economy of redemption. Storer suggests that a number of traditional tensions between Roman Catholics and Evangelicals, such as the literal or spiritual sense of Scripture, a sacramental or a covenantal model of God’s self-mediation, and an emphasis on the authority of Scripture or the authority of the Church, can be eased by shifting greater focus upon God’s ongoing use of creaturely realities for the building of the Church in union with Christ.
This project seeks to enable Evangelicals to appropriate the insights of de Lubac’s Catholic Ressourcement project, while also encouraging Roman Catholic theologians to appreciate Vanhoozer’s Evangelical emphasis on God’s use of the literal sense of Scripture to build the Church.
About the Author
Kevin Storer received his PhD from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and is Adjunct Professor of Theology at Duquesne University and St Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
Contents
Introduction
Theological Interpretation of Scripture and the Opportunity for Evangelical and Catholic Dialogue
Kevin Vanhoozer: God’s Speech-Acts Beyond Postliberals and Revisionists
Henri de Lubac: Ressourcement Beyond Modernism and Neo-Thomism
Description of the Project
1. God’s Use of Scripture for Self-Communication: Divine Speaking in the Literal and Spiritual Sense
Introduction: Vanhoozer and de Lubac and the Literal and Spiritual Senses
Kevin Vanhoozer: God’s Authorship of Scripture and the Sufficiency of the Literal Sense
Henri de Lubac: Christ’s Presence in Scripture and the Necessity of the Spiritual Sense
Conclusion: Persistent Challenges and Dialogue
2. Vanhoozer’s Covenantal Ontology and de Lubac’s Sacramental Ontology:
Different Models of Christ’s Self-Mediation in the Economy of Redemption
Introduction
Vanhoozer’s Communicative/Covenantal Ontology and God’s Use of Scripture
De Lubac’s Sacramental Ontology and God’s Use of Scripture
Convergence: Trans-Figural Reading and the Spiritual Sense of Scripture
3. God’s Use of Scripture and Church in the Economy of Redemption
Introduction: Vanhoozer’s Covenant Ecclesiology and de Lubac’s Sacramental Ecclesiology
Vanhoozer’s Covenant Ecclesiology
De Lubac’s Sacramental Ecclesiology
Convergence: Development of Doctrine as Extending Canonical Meaning Potential or Reading as the Totus Christus?
Conclusion
Bibliography
Endorsements and Reviews
With St. Jerome, Roman Catholics and Protestants agree that ‘ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ’. But in the face of divergent theological and methodological commitments, how can interpreters from these communities acquire a synoptic view? Kevin Storer’s trenchant analysis of de Lubac and Vanhoozer escorts readers to the Roman Catholic/Protestant intersection to discover the answer.
Chris Castaldo, Director of the Ministry of Gospel Renewal, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois
With Reading Scripture to Hear God, Kevin Storer makes a very valuable contribution to scholarship on the theological interpretation of Scripture. His comparative analysis of the programs of Kevin Vanhoozer and Henri de Lubac is clear, sophisticated, and constructive. This book reinforces how the theological interpretation of Scripture can be a mutually enriching, collaborative field of study for Protestants and Catholics.
William M. Wright IV, Associate Professor of Theology, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
