"Retrieving Ancient Exegesis: Beyond an Academic Fad"

Rev. Dr. Michael Niebauer

It has been fifty years since Hans Frei’s The Eclipse of the Biblical Narrative helped to launch a robust critique of the historical-critical method and a rediscovery of pre-modern approaches to Biblical interpretation. There is now a legion of scholarly works that provide a robust description of the types of ancient exegetical practices that were lost in the transition to modernity. However, a living retrieval of these practices, where clergy and laity, the educated and uneducated, actively read scripture together in the local church along the exegetical contours of the ancient Christians, remains elusive. This lack of a living retrieval has prompted Ephraim Radner to wonder if the rising interest in early Christian exegesis will remain a fad of the academy. 

How can those able to glean the spiritual and figural dimensions of scripture translate their knowledge into exegetical artifacts that are intelligible to those who have never heard of the terms “exegesis” and “hermeneutics?” How can they teach their parishioners to go and do likewise? This presentation will explore the challenges to recovering ancient exegetical practices and highlight a few attempts to instantiate a living retrieval, attempts that have led to the subsequent publication of Four Mountains: Encountering God in the Bible from Eden to Zion (Lexham Press, 2005) and From Word to Worship: How the Lectionary Welcomes You into Sacred Time Through Story, Symbol, and Sacrament (Baker, forthcoming).

Michael Niebauer Webinar.mp4