Book Reviews -- By: Anonymous

Journal: Trinity Journal
Volume: TRINJ 10:2 (Fall 1989)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous


Book Reviews

Culture and Biblical Hermeneutics by William J. Larkin. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1988. 401 pp. $16.95, paper.

Larkin’s book Culture and Biblical Hermeneutics is centered on the theme of interpreting and applying Scripture in an age of relativism. Can, he asks, a way be found to understand and apply the authoritative Word of God so that its saving message can be heard and obeyed? According to the author there is, but it can only be found “by returning to the Scriptures to see how the Bible addresses the questions and constructs of the contemporary hermeneutical discussion” (9).

As Larkin presents it, the process of interpretation and application involves two major tasks. The first is a careful analysis and description of “both the roots and current state of biblical hermeneutics” (26–27). The second is the “development of a biblical theology of hermeneutics and culture, together with suitable guidelines for interpreting and applying the Bible” (28). Accordingly the book is divided into two major sections.

Part one begins with a brief discussion of the backdrop against which an historical review is developed, namely, the relativising effects of several modern disciplines — theology, philosophy and anthropology. Relativism is defined as “the view that beliefs and principles, particularly evaluative ones, have no universal or timeless validity but are valid only for the age in which or the social group or individual person by which, they are held” (18–19). The author goes on to distinguish between two basic types of relativism: “hard perspectivism” (radical relativism) which denies true or valid knowledge outside the historical or cultural context of the individual and “soft perspectivism” (qualified or moderate relativism) which seeks a balance between a rational assessment of historical and cultural context and conclusions based on a multi-cultured perspective (19).

As applied to the discipline of history, relativism would maintain that an ancient text may (soft) or definitely will (hard) have a different meaning today, since the modern man’s perception is conditioned by his own pre-understanding. Thus it becomes impossible to conclude that “the Bible can or necessarily will communicate the same message in the contemporary context that it did in its ancient one” (20).

As applied to the study of culture, relativism assumes several forms. There is, on the one hand, the “ethnographic method” which requires the observer to overcome his or her own conditioning and assume the attitudes of the culture being observed (20). The observer’s task is to describe the culture objectively on its own terms and evaluate phenomena “in terms of their significance in that parti...

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