The Triune Story: Collected Essays on Scripture

by Robert W. Jenson, Brad East (Editor), Bruce D. Marshall (Foreword by)

Overview

At the time of his death in the autumn of 2017, Robert W. Jenson was arguably America's foremost theologian. Over the course of a career spanning more than five decades, much of Jenson's thought was dedicated to the theological description of how Scripture should be read-what has come to be called theological interpretation. In this rapidly expanding field of scholarship, Jenson has had an inordinate impact.

Despite its importance, study of Jenson's theology of scriptural interpretation has lagged, due in large part to the longevity of his career and volume of his output. In this book, all of Jenson's writings on Scripture and its interpretation have been collected for the first time. Here readers will be able to see the evolution of Jenson's thought on this topic, as well as the scope and intensity of his late-period engagement with it. Where other twentieth-century thinkers rely on non-theological, secular methods of scriptural investigation, Jenson is willing to let go of "respectability" for the sake of a truly Christian theological interpretation. The result is a genuinely free, intellectually invigorating exercise in reading and theory from one of the greatest theologians in the last century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190917005
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/17/2019
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Robert W. Jenson (1930-2017) was an internationally renowned theologian and the author of dozens of books and hundreds of essays and articles. He earned his ThD at the University of Heidelberg, finishing his dissertation in Basel under the guidance of Karl Barth. His two-volume Systematic Theology was published in 1997 and 1999 by Oxford University Press.

Brad East (PhD, Yale University) is Assistant Professor in the College of Biblical Studies at Abilene Christian University, Abilene, Texas. His work has been published in Modern Theology, International Journal of Systematic Theology, Scottish Journal of Theology, Anglican Theological Review, and Pro Ecclesia, as well as interpretation, Living Church, Los Angeles Review of Books, Marginalia Review of Books, and Mere Orthodoxy.

Table of Contents

Foreword, by Bruce D. MarshallAcknowledgmentsIntroduction, by Brad EastPart I Early Reflections and Encounters1. An Ecumenical Proposal of Dogma (1976)2. On the Problem(s) of Scriptural Authority (1977)3. Psalm 32 (1979)4. Can a Text Defend Itself? An Essay de Inspiratione Scripturae (1989)5. The Decalogue (1991)6. Simplistic Thoughts about the Authority of Scripture (1992)Part II Tradition, Inspiration, and Hermeneutics7. Hermeneutics and the Life of the Church (1995)8. The Norms of Theological Judgment (1997)9. The Word and the Icons (1999)10. Scripture's Authority in the Church (2003)11. A Second Thought about Inspiration (2004)12. Introduction to Song of Songs (2005)13. Gregory of Nyssa: The Life of Moses (2006)14. On the Authorities of Scripture (2007)15. The Strange New World of the Bible (2008)16. Introduction to Ezekiel (2009)17. Moses and the Mountain of Knowledge (2009)18. Sola Scriptura (2011)19. On the Inspiration of Scripture (2012)Part III Christian Doctrine and Theological Interpretation20. Toward a Christian Theology of Israel (2000)21. Once More into the Breach: The True Historical Jesus (2000)22. The Bible and the Trinity (2002)23. oward a Christian Theology of Judaism (2003)24. On the Ascension (2004)25. The Trinity in the Bible (2004)26. Male and Female He Created Them (2005)27. Reading the Body (2005)28. Identity, Jesus, and Exegesis (2008)29. What Kind of God Can Make a Covenant? (2012)30. The Bride of Christ (2012)31. Can Ethical Disagreement Divide the Church? (2012)32. On Dogmatic/Systematic Appropriation of Paul-According-to-Martyn (2012)Epilogue-It's the Culture (2014)Index

Editorial Reviews

"The book is capacious enough to accommodate readers of a variety of interests and ecclesial commitments." — Joseph Mangina, Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto , Modern Theology

"This volume gives readers a glimpse into the development of Jenson's own thinking on the nature of Scripture, its interpretation, and its role within the community of faith ... Anyone who takes up these essays will not set them aside without a challenge, both spiritual and intellectual, to read Scripture with greater care, and with greater openness to the inbreaking of the Triune God whose story the Bible reveals." — Theology Forum

"Robert Jenson was undoubtedly one of the most influential and original English-speaking theologians of the last half century, eloquent, controversial, profoundly in love with the God of Jewish and Christian Scripture. This invaluable collection shows us the depth and quality of his engagement with the text of Scripture: we follow him in his close reading of various passages and his tracing of various themes, and emerge with a renewed appreciation of the scope of his doctrinal vision. He offers a model of committed, prayerful exegesis which is both a joy and a challenge to read." — Rowan Williams

"Robert Jenson never needed to be reminded that the most interesting thing about the Bible is God. For those frustrated by biblical scholars apparently willing to harangue us about anything but God, The Triune Story will come as a healing draught. With vigor, clarity, and learning, Jenson reminds us that the apostolic faith, ancient yet always future, is the only true key to the understanding and interpretation of Scripture." — Christopher Bryan, author of The Resurrection of the Messiah and Listening to the Bible

"The never ending task of helping students learn how to read scripture theologically just got a lot easier with this collection. Jenson had a lot to say about the theological interpretation of scripture — much of it important and worthy of offering to future generations as an able guide into the strange world of the bible. Jenson's work on scripture will also be studied by generations of historians and theologians who will want to see a theologian in full intellectual flight thinking about scripture and society and doing so with a seriousness almost unmatched in the latter half of the twenty century. This is a book both important and necessary." — Willie James Jennings, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies, Yale Divinity School

"In a cultural and theological milieu in the twentieth century that viewed the Bible as a book from the past, Robert Jenson put the biblical story as a living Word of God at the center of his thought. The essays in this rich collection are as fresh and stimulating today as they were when first published." — Robert Louis Wilken, William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor Emeritus of the History of Christianity, University of Virginia

"The chief value of The Triune Story lies not in the insights into various texts but in the way it shows a fertile imagination unleashed upon God's narrative in the canon of Scripture." — Ian Olson, Mockingbird

From the Publisher