1 Scripture Or Many

Table Of Contents
1. Introduction: A New Biblical-theological Approach To The Unity Of The Canon , Christine Helmer And Christof Landmesser
2. Transhistorical Unity Of The New Testament Canon From Philosophical, Exegetical, And Theological Perspectives , Christine Helmer
3. From Literature To Scripture: The Unity And Plurality Of The Hebrew Scriptures In Light Of The Qumran Library , Armin Lange
4. Unity And Plurality In Jewish Canons: The Case Of The Oral And Written Torahs , Benjamin D. Sommer
5. Unity: Within The Canon Or After The Canon , James Barr
6. Interpretative Unity Of The New Testament , Christof Landmesser
7. Unity Of Scripture Constituted Through Jewish Traditions Of Interpretation , Avi Sagi
8. The Unity Behind

Additional Info
Description
One Scripture or Many? proposes a novel understanding of canon that reaches beyond the text to the reality of tradition. This new approach to biblical theology takes up major questions concerning the unity of the canon. Its thesis is bold: canon is both text and tradition. As text, the canon is the product of a history of formation; its unity is ascribed by subsequent generations interpreting the text. As tradition, its fundamental openness to diverse interpretations is the function of a subject behind the text that holds together the tradition’s unity.
Yet open-endedness does not mean an absence of determinacy. Hermeneutical, theological, and philosophical parameters are given in order to maintain a unity at one level that does not exist between ideas conflicting on another level. These parameters are constituted through the relationship between text, reality, and experience. On the one hand, these parameters are embedded in the text. On the other hand, they are inextricably linked to reality because they themselves reflect experiences of that reality.
The interdisciplinary approach in this book draws on scholarship in the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the New Testament, philosophy, and theology. Both Jewish and Christian scholars conclude that the search for the canon is an open-ended process of interpretation.
Questions of the canon’s unity find their niche in a new concept of biblical theology that presupposes the theological and philosophical relevance of biblical texts. As conceived in religious categories, experience and reality are themes already available in scripture. Whether one or many, scripture addresses these questions for our time.