EM721-6 - Missional Hermeneutics

  • 0 Standard Tuition Fee
  • 6
    Credit Points
  • 0.1875 EFT 
  • 8
    AQF level
  • evangelism missiolUnit Discipline

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will

A. Know and understand

  1. A deep and systematic understanding of key texts and writers in the field of missional hermeneutics.
  2. A Critical awareness of developments in missional hermeneutics and how they apply to reading the Bible from a missional perspective.
  3. An understanding of key mission-Related themes within the Bible and a Critical evaluation of various proposals regarding the place such themes ought to have in Christian interpretation and application of Scripture.

B. Be able to

  1. Compare, Evaluate and synthesise current approaches in missional hermeneutics, integrating relevant undertandings from the fields of biblical studies, missiology and missional theology.
  2. Articulate their own understanding of the relationship between the mission of God and the interpretive task of Christian readers of Scripture.

C. Be in a position to

  1. Apply a missional hermeneutic creatively to their own reading of biblical texts.
  2. Relate the insights of missional hermeneutics to their own context and practice.

Content

The unit will include a discussion of the following themes as they are developed in selected biblical books and corpora, and across the canon:

  •  The development and nature of missional hermeneutics.
  • God and mission: revelation, monotheism and idolatry, the missio Dei and the trinitarian character of mission.
  • God’s people and mission: election, universality and particularity, redemption, restoration, covenant, gospel, sentness, and ethics.
  • God’s world and mission: creation, culture, and the nations.

Set Readings

Prescribed:

Wright, C. (2006) The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative, Nottingham: Inter-Varsity Press

Brown, J. (2007) Scripture as Communication: Introducing Biblical Hermeneutics, Grand Rapids, Baker.

Recommended (books):

Bauckham, R. (2003) Bible and Mission: Christian Witness in a Postmodern World, Carlisle, Cumbria: Paternoster Press

Beeby, H. (1999) Canon and Mission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Trinity Press International

Bosch, D. (2011) Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission, Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books

Brownson, J. (1998) Speaking the Truth in Love: New Testament Resources for a Missional Hermeneutic, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Trinity Press International

Goheen, M.W. (2011) A Light to the Nations: The Missional Church and the Biblical Story, Grand Rapids: Baker Academic

Gorman, Michael J. (2015) Becoming the Gospel: Paul, Participation, and Mission. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans

Kaiser, W. (2000) Mission in the Old Testament: Israel as a Light to the Nations, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House

Okoye, J. (2006) Israel and the Nations: A Mission Theology of the Old Testament, Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books

Redford, S.B. (2012) Missiological Hermeneutics: Biblical Interpretation and the Global Church, Eugene: Pickwick Publications

Russell, Brian (2016) (re)Aligning with God: Reading Scripture for Church and World, Eugene: Cascade

Sarma, Bitrus A. (2015) Hermeneutics of Mission in Matthew: Israel and the Nations in the Interpretative Framework of Matthew's Gospel, Carlisle: Langham Monographs

Starling, D. I. (2016) Hermeneutics as Apprenticeship: How the Bible shapes our interpretive habits and practices, Grand Rapids: Baker.

Stroope, M. (2017) Transcending Mission: The Eclipse of a Modern Tradition, Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press.

Work, T. (2001). Living and active: Scripture in the economy of salvation. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Wright, C. (2010) The Mission of God’s People: A Biblical Theology of the Church’s Mission, Grand Rapids: Zondervan

Recommended (journal articles): 

Barram, M. ‘The Bible, Mission, and Social Location: Toward a Missional Hermeneutic’, Interpretation, 61 (2007), pp.42-58.

Goheen, M.W. (2008) ‘Continuing Steps Towards a Missional Hermeneutic’, Fideles, 3 (2008), pp.49-99

Hunsberger, G. (2011) ‘Proposals for a Missional Hermeneutic: Mapping a Conversation’, Missiology, XXXIX:3 (2011), pp.309-321