Bulletin of Biblical Studies, vol. 17, July-December 1998, year 27, p. 144.
The July-December 1998 issue of the Bulletin of Biblical Studies contains six (6) articles, some of which have been recommendations at a scientific Symposium in Neamt, Rumania under the topic: The importance of the Fathers for the interpretation of the Scriptures, Sept. 1997.
U. Luz examines in a western-protestant point of view the importance that the Fathers of the Church have today for the interpretation of the H. S.. From the beginning the writer observes that in practice the Fathers have little significance for the western interpretation of the H. S. and explains the reasons for the recession of their use in the western and especially the protestant exegetical literature. Next, he mentions the significance of the Fathers in an exegetical and hermeneutic aspect, particularly emphasizing the interfaces of their hermeneutic ways with newer hermeneutic methods.
Father V. Mihoc talks of the timeliness of the biblical interpretation of the Fathers and the ecclesiastical writers of the first eight Christian centuries, mainly of the East. In this context, he initially examines the meaning of the term “Fathers”. Next, he mentions the Fathers' use of philosophy and their contemporary secular sciences for the interpretation of the Bible and analyzes the fatherly principle of theory that is the hermeneutic viewing that tries to distinguish the spiritual meaning of the biblical text, as hermeneutic method.
J. Dunn focuses his attention on the principles of scientific methods for the interpretation of the gospels, how these have been perceived and how they have evolved in “recent” times. In this context, he examines and appreciates the emergence of the historical criticism and the historical-critical method, the criticism of the sources and the form. Finally, he analyses the change of the scientific example that is observed in the last decades and the challenges of postmodernism.
G. Segalla presents the issue of the ecclesiastical authority and the interpretation of the Bible in a Roman-Catholic aspect. The writer's basic position is that for a reliable and approved interpretation of the Bible a formal authority is necessary, by means of the apostolic succession, so that it does not come down to subjective and unsupported interpretations. In this frame, he analytically presents the background of the written interventions of the Roman-Catholic ecclesiastical authority in the interpretation of the H. S. and makes a theological composition of them.
J. Rollof investigates how the responsibility-authority of the Church for the interpretation of the Bible is founded, of what it consists and how it can be realized under modern conditions. He especially analyzes the relationship between the authority of the Church and the authority of the H. S., how we arrived at the problematic situation we are in today, with regard to the relationship between the scientific explanation of the H. S. and the Church, while, in the end, he proposes certain theological perspectives for the overcoming of the problems.
S. Agouridis analyzes the causes and the complex historical, social, political and scientific factors that have led to the negative attitude of the Orthodox Church towards the Bible and the modern scientific methods.
Next follows a presentation of the aforementioned Symposium and two book reviews.