From Holy Scripture to Theological Interpretation of the Holy Scripture: John Webster's Theological Perspective

From Holy Scripture to Theological Interpretation of the Holy Scripture: John Webster's Theological Perspective

Andres S. TANG

This paper aims to give an introduction to John Webster's theological understanding of the theological interpretation of the Holy Scripture. Instead of promoting a kind of doctrinal practice of interpretation, Webster offers a dogmatic sketch of reading/interpreting the Holy Scripture. His task is to re -order the reading/interpreting of the Holy Scripture within the domain of the Word. This means that the doctrine of God is prior to bibliology whereas bibliology is prior to hermeneutics. This kind of re-ordering is theological or dogmatic but not philosophical. Accordingly , the Holy Scripture is not reduced to textuality and the reader is not reduced to man/woman of natural reason. And finally the reading/interpreting activity is not just a kind of the practice of historical and literary criticism. Webster tries to recover regional hermeneutics in which the nature and the function of the Holy Scripture and the reading/interpreting of it are to be understood and ruled in the domain of the Word. However, it should be noted that Webster does not deny the reason of human being and the critical method of historical-literary criticisms but re-orders them to a proper position that is directed towards the communicative end of the triune God.