Ward, Timothy

2018-05-22T12:49:37Z

2018-05-22T12:49:37Z

1999

This thesis aims to reconstruct the bases of the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture, bringing its orthodox Protestant formulation into discussion with some related topics in contemporary theology, hermeneutics, literary theory and the philosophy of language. Material for the reconstruction is found especially in speech-act theory, as developed by J.L. Austin, John Searle and Nicholas Wolterstorff, and as it has been applied to the Bible initially by Wolterstorff, Anthony Thiselton and Kevin Vanhoozer. The content of the thesis addresses both those who confess the doctrine too unreflectively and those who dismiss it too hastily.

An introductory chapter outlines the academic contexts in which the content of the thesis is located: the interpretation of the historical doctrine of Scripture; the influence of linguistic and literary theory on contemporary theology and biblical studies; Jacques Derrida's concept of the inevitable 'supplementation' of written texts; the question of authority in theology and how God is to be 'named'; the broad question of how Christian theology may think of God's action in light of modernity and post-modernity.

The body of the thesis begins with an analytical overview of the history of the doctrine's development and decline, focusing on its full articulation in the Protestant Reformation and in post-Reformation Protestant scholasticism, (chapter 2). Theologians of the latter type, particularly Francis Turretin, are defended against the charge that they departed significantly from the Reformation understanding of Scripture. This analysis describes three elements of the sufficiency of Scripture, each of which is reconstructed in turn in the three subsequent chapters.

Chapter 3 deals with the theological claim that God speaks, and that Scripture is a medium of his speech. A notion of what it is to speak based on speech-act theory and especially on Wolterstorff s application of it to divine speech is adopted, and used to inform a reading of Karl Barth's conception of God as speaker, in order to assess his rejection of fundamental aspects of the classical Protestant doctrine of Scripture. The identification of Scripture with the Word of God, acknowledging Barth's concerns, is defended.

Chapter 4 takes up the material aspect of the sufficiency of Scripture: that Scripture contains everything necessary to be known for salvation. Various construals of textual ontology are discussed: the hermeneutical models of 'textual self-sufficiency' offered in literary theory by New Criticism and in theology by Hans Frei; the opposing construals of authorship developed by E.D. Hirsch and deconstruction, especially as the latter is exemplified in the work of the NT scholar Stephen Moore; the reader-oriented hermeneutics of Stanley Fish and Stanley Hauerwas. A conception of Scripture as 'sufficient', in relation to an ethical construal of authorship and a description of the action of the Holy Spirit, is developed.

Chapter 5 takes up the formal aspect of sufficiency: that Scripture is sufficient for its own interpretation. The theories of intertextuality of Julia Kristeva and Roland Barthes are examined, and philosophical resources are found in the work of Mikhail Bakhtin on language and Paul Ricoeur on Scripture, exemplified in the NT exegesis of Richard Hays, to outline a conception of 'biblical polyphony'. The canonical hermeneutics of B.S. Childs is examined, and supplemented hermeneutically via a recent suggestion of E.D. Hirsch on authorial intentionality, and theologically with a defence of the orthodox Protestant doctrine of biblical inspiration, as articulated by B.B. Warfield. A conception of the canon of Scripture as 'sufficient' is offered.

A concluding chapter suggests how this reconstruction of the sufficiency of Scripture may inform questions of hermeneutics, biblical authority and Christian talk about God.

http://hdl.handle.net/1842/30891

The University of Edinburgh

Annexe Thesis Digitisation Project 2018 Block 19

Word and supplement: reconstructing the doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture

Thesis or Dissertation

Doctoral

PhD Doctor of Philosophy