Is Greg Boyd doing Theological Interpretation of Scripture?

Last updated on: June 2, 2017 at 4:03 am by Scot McKnight

Is Greg Boyd doing Theological Interpretation of Scripture? 2017-06-01T12:26:49-05:00 Scot McKnight

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The answer is Yes. There are a number of theologians doing “theological interpretation of Scripture” (TIS) today. While it is unfair to the nuances of each theologian to mix them all into one batch, the fundamental strategy is generically alike. That is, they know where they stand theologically, they believe where they stand is solid footing (they think it’s truth), and they then are liberated to see either reflections or intimations of that theology in the Old Testament.

What, after all, is the difference between Tim Keller finding “grace vs. religion” (grace, performance, etc) in Genesis, or so many in The Gospel Coalition finding Christ in the Old Testament (e.g., Graeme Goldsworthy’s tune), Protestant liberals/progressives finding social justice as the Bible’s central theme, African American or Latin American or feminist or womanist liberation theologians viewing the Bible through the lens of liberation, and Greg Boyd re-interpreting OT violence passages in light of cruciformity (understood as pacifistic)?

Much, but only in one way: the theology where they stand is different.

At the heart this becomes “How do we determine where we stand?” Do we stand with our own interpretations? With the historical critical method? With a creedalism or confessionalism or denominationalism? Or… with … someone like…

Greg Boyd, in his The Crucifixion of the Warrior God, finds an early example of his cruciform hermeneutic in Origen, who not only was at one time off limits but who has these days found reception among a wide spectrum of orthodox thinkers, including some evangelicals. If he got off base on his form of universalism does not mean everything he taught was wrong. Hence, there is a resurgence of Origen in our world today. This, it must be admitted, is a separate discussion, and one not for me, though I’d be glad to host a good post or a series of posts on Origenist theology.

An opener from Origen:

Origen: “The Holy Spirit supervised… cases [in Scripture] where that which appeared at the first glance could neither be true nor useful in order that… we should be led on to search for a meaning worthy of God” (417).

If the Dismissal and Synthesis views don’t answer the questions, what’s left?

If, as I have argued, all Scripture must bear witness to the crucified Christ, and if we can neither dismiss nor simply embrace the OT’s violent divine portraits, our only remaining option is to look for a way of interpreting these portraits that discloses how they reflect the self-sacrificial love of God revealed on Calvary. 418

At issue — always and forever — is hermeneutics. Which hermeneutics? Whose hermeneutics? What method? One method was allegory, a method now fallen out of favor but it wasn’t out of favor in the NT or patristic periods:

Though doctrines such as the incarnation, the Trinity, and baptism certainly appeared to be recently conceived, early Christian thinkers argued these doctrines were actually very ancient, for they are present in an allegorical form in the OT, which even many non-Christians assumed was older than Homer. Thus, allegorical exegesis, together with several other theologically driven interpretive techniques (e.g., typology), allowed early Christians to present their faith as a viable, intellectually attractive, and very ancient option. 424

Three Origenist principles:

First, as Maurice Wiles has noted, Origen held that “if the Holy Spirit is the author of all scripture … every part must be in full agreement with the meaning of every other part, since God never contradicts himself.’ 425

A second important and closely related aspect of Origen’s view of Scripture concerns his use of the incarnational analogy for understanding biblical inspiration…. the Bible is almost a first incarnation. 426

Origen’s incarnational model of inspiration led him to believe that there could be nothing superfluous in Scripture. 427

One, two, three. Sounds like the method I was introduced to in American fundamentalism though the name Origen wasn’t on the lips of those teaching it.

But this leads Origen then to the moral and hermeneutical problem:

Origen “refuses to believe in the literal truth of accounts of massacres carried out under God’s orders” (434). [these passages are “unworthy of God” Origen believed]

Origen simply could not see how the Christ-centered harmony that he believed permeated the canon could be preserved if the violence ascribed to God and his people in the OT was taken at face value. 442

Is this Marcionite? No, but he walks with Marcion a bit, and then radically parts paths:

Origen is, in effect, conceding to Marcion and others that the god of the OT is an evil deity, but only if one insists on interpreting the reports of his violent commands and actions literally. To Origen’s way of thinking, however, this simply proves that this sort of material is not to be interpreted this way. Instead, the “impossibility of the literal sense” of such material should force us to dig deeper to uncover ‘the inner meaning,” which, as we noted above, is precisely why the Spirit “breathed” these “impossibilities” into the inspired written witness to God’s faithful covenantal activity. 444

In the end, Origen knew where he stood. Is this how we all read the Bible?

… the primary reason Origen found the OT’s violent depictions of God to be problematic, if taken at face value, was that he was unwavering in his confidence that the crucified Christ fully revealed the true character of God and that this character was altogether nonviolent. 458

Uncategorized

Previous Post

June 2, 2017

The Bible is Central 2

Next Post

June 2, 2017 I'm Hoping on this One

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which queen visited Solomon to test his wisdom?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Queen Vashti Queen Esther Queen of Sheba Queen Jezebel