Ad Litteram
Subtitle: How Augustine, Calvin, and Barth Read the "Plain Sense" of Genesis 1-3 (Issues in Systematic Theology, V. 5)
Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing; Lang Publishing, Incorporated, Peter
Published: December 1998
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 274
ISBN-13: 9780820439921
Subjects: Doctrinal Theology; Individual Theologians And Their Works (General); Religion; Religion - Commentaries / Reference; Bible - Criticism  Interpretation - Old Testament; Christianity - History - General; History; Augustine; Barth, Karl; Calvin, Jean; Contributions in doctrine of creation; Christian Theology - General; Augustine,; Bible; Bible.; Creation; Criticism, interpretation, etc; Genesis I-III; History of doctrines; O.T; O.T.; Saint, Bishop of Hippo
Description: One of the most complex problems in Christian interpretation of the Bible is the question of what constitutes a "plain sense" reading of Scripture. This study breaks fresh ground by examining understandings of the plain sense of Scripture along a trajectory represented by Augustine, John Calvin and Karl Barth. Analyzing their readings of Genesis 1-3, the author focuses on Augustine's De Genesi ad litteram, libri XII, Calvin's Commentary on the First Book of Moses, and Barth's Church dogmatics 3.1. The results of this investigation urge an ecumenically significant understanding of the plain sense of Scripture: within this theological trajectory, reading according to the plain sense involves a negotiation between the constraints of verbal sense and the Rule of Faith.