RLT4090

The authority of the text: the hermeneutical question

Peter Howard, Mark Coleridge and Walter Veit

12 points
* 2 hours per week
* Second semester
* Clayton

Objectives Students who successfully complete this subject will have a comprehensive knowledge of the strength, status and scope of claims to authority made both by and for the Bible, and the historical, theoretical and cultural issues involved. They will acquire a close knowledge of the different claims to authority made for the biblical text at different historical periods, will have mastered the various debates about textual and contextual hermeneutics, and will have developed skills in evaluating distinct kinds of exegesis.

Synopsis A crisis of authority is characteristic of contemporary Western culture. One symptom of this is the problematic of the authority of the text: a problematic which has its origins in classical and Judaeo-Christian cultures. Texts which were once assumed to have an unquestioned authority can no longer claim such. This is particularly the case with a religion such as Christianity which is so textually based. The aim of the subject is not only to examine the specific claims to authority of fundamental texts like the Bible and its interpreters in the early Christian period but also to explore the way in which the self-understanding of authors in subsequent periods has been determined by the founding agenda.

Assessment Essay (5000 words): 70%
* Class paper plus seminar participation: 30%