Abstract
Barry Jones presents readers with a model for ministers, students, and laypeople to find and discern the way in which the Bible “forms us as people in relation to God” (p. 3). Jones begins the journey of biblical discernment with Psalm 90, noting that Ps 90:12 (“teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart,” NRSV) remains his personal goal. This acknowledgment should resound with each reader, whether a minister, student, or layperson. Jones wisely notes that readers generally use two methods when reading a particular biblical text: the religious reading and the critical reading. Jones suggests that a third way, theological interpretation of Scripture, is needed to bridge the gap. Furthermore, Jones posits that the method he is introducing can bring the various disciplines in the academy together in a form which can present many of voices. He maintains that theological interpretation of Scripture is “not a methodology for studying the Bible” but rather “a set of goals and practices that aims to bridge the divisions between the church and the academy” (p. 21).
Jones begins chapter 2 with a brief discussion of the need for the theological interpretation of Scripture in churches. He suggests that ministers are in deep need of a way to bridge the gap between the religious reading and the critical reading (pp. 23–24). Jones then discusses, in an accessible way, the basic assumptions of the historical-critical method. The heart of chapter 2, however, lies in Jones’s discussion of the methods of Brevard Childs and Gabriel Fackre, citing the methods as examples of theological interpretation of Scripture. Jones employs Fackre’s methodology for his own theological interpretation of Psalm 90. He describes Fackre’s interpretive strategy as having four senses: the common sense, the critical sense, the canonical sense, and the contextual sense (pp. 40–42). Fackre developed his model for a minister to use each week in preparation for a sermon or Bible study. Though using this model may seem too big a mountain to climb, Jones places the minister’s mind at ease by framing the task as a series of conversations. He notes that, despite the “demanding assignment,” Fackre’s model “is a promising, theologically grounded framework for carrying out the goals of theological interpretation” (p. 45).
Jones presents the first “sense” and first conversation in chapter 3: the common sense of the text and a conversation within the church. Jones asserts that what separates Fackre’s common sense of the text from other theological methods is the emphasis on the information available to the church, which reads Scripture together in the act of worship (p. 48). For Jones, the conversation is not confined to the local church and its resources but rather takes account of the global church and the church of the past. Continuing this broad understanding, chapter 3 contains a brief discussion of reading the Bible in translation, a discussion providing readers unfamiliar with translations a basic understanding of translational strategies. Jones then proceeds to explore for the church the familiar features of Psalm 90. The unfamiliar features, however, provide the segue to chapter 4 and the second sense of the text and conversation.
In chapter 4, Jones highlights questions raised by the peculiar portions of Psalm 90, such as God’s giving birth to mountains, providing the impetus for further and deeper study. Much like the presentation of translations, Jones presents the text-critical issues of Psalm 90 in an accessible way. Jones states, “No one tradition contains absolute knowledge” (p. 65), suggesting that neither the church alone nor biblical scholars alone hold absolute theological interpretation. Jones further suggests that the critical reading of a text allows us to hear the text “in stereo and high definition” (p. 87).
Chapter 5 discusses the canonical sense of the text through a conversation with theologians. In situating Psalm 90, Jones discusses its importance in the Old Testament and its single allusion in the New Testament. Moreover, Jones connects patristic and Reformation interpretations of Psalm 90, as well as links to the Apostles’ Creed to theological interpretation of the text. What is most imperative in Jones’s discussion is the need for the canonical sense of each biblical text. All texts have a context, and Jones highlights well that neglect of the canonical context can be a detriment to the theological interpretation of Scripture.
Jones concludes with the fourth, the “contextual,” sense and the conversation with the world. The contextual sense is the “truth for all” becoming “truth for us” and “truth for me” (p. 111). Jones presents four models for contextualizing any biblical text, asserting that using Fackre’s model of dynamic equivalence in the translation of the concepts of a biblical text to a contemporary context can preserve “the integrity of biblical meaning in contemporary forms of action” (p. 113). In contextualizing Psalm 90, Jones observes that the themes of community allow for privileged communities to lament and acknowledge those communities experiencing poverty or war, while simultaneously providing hope for the community of God (p. 121).
I have only two criticisms of Jones’s model. First, the task put forward to the minister by Fackre’s model is daunting. For many ministers, to complete this much weekly preparation for a text would be difficult at best, a challenge Jones does acknowledge in chapter 2. Second, the model may mute voices from outside Christianity. Fackre’s model is particularly Christian, and as such may reduce the Jewish, Muslim, feminist, or other voices necessary for understanding both the Old and New Testaments. Nevertheless, Jones is to be commended for his well-written and accessible model for theological interpretation of Scripture. His model can – and in my opinion should – be used more often in churches, seminaries, and Bible studies.