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12 Cards in this Set

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Frei (who)
Post-liberal theologian, one of its architects

Studied engineering at NC State and then attended Yale.

Studied under H. Richard Niebuhr, wrote dissertation on Barth's concept of Revelation

Taught at Yale

Jewish family, Lutheran upbringing, became a baptist minister after his B.D. at Yale, and then became Anglican

Later in life focused on social history, as opposed to intellectual history.
Frei (structure of Eclipse)
After introduction, 3 main topics

1) Biblical narrative and history
2) Use of figuration to fashion the Bible into a single canon
3) Fitting the biblical world into the present day (bad), as opposed to fitting the present world into the biblical world (good)
Frei (thesis)
The 18th and 19th century hermeneutics that eclipsed the formative function of biblical narrative as realistic narratives continues in 20th C. biblical hermeneutics.

Purpose: To recover the Reformers view of Scripture as realistic narrative center on Jesus Christ.
Frei (16th C. Reformers)
Luther, Calvin, and other reformers placed the meaning of biblical narratives in the narratives themselves. They read biblical narratives as both literal and historical, read the whole Bible as 'preaching Christ' (40) particularly through the use of figural reading, and read for a comprehension of 'the way things really are' (36), i.e. submitting their present world to the world of the biblical narrative.

The plain, literal sense of the story was the meaning of the story. Allegory was employed, but only as long as it didn't offend the literal sense. Figurative reading supported the literal by bring unity to the to the text. Note: as a good Protestant, Frei interprets the unity of the Scripture as being a function of its interpretive method, not Jesus Christ as its subject.
Frei (17th C. Transitions)
With Spinoza arose historical criticism, where history was the meaning behind the text.

Cocceius, a devout Christian, used typological to make connections between the biblical world and the present world. This neglected the biblical world and placed emphasis on the present world.

Yet, the emphasis on history negated the classical value in figural interpretation. Literal reading came to mean grammatical exactitude and whether descriptions convey facts as they occurred.

*Ultimately, this forced the separation of two pairs of notions: (1) explicative sense was separated historical reference in that history needed to be verified before meaning could assessed, and (2) narrative depiction was separated from meaning or subject matter int that the latter was dependent upon something behind the text..
Frei (problematic factors)
The rise in critical history, denial of miracles, and Kant's bifurcation of fact and value effectively separated meaning from the narrative.

Meaning became a function of something behind the text--history or and idea--but not the text itself.

Meaning as history meant truth was verifiable
Meaning as an idea meant the text could be allegorized or mythified.

Conservatives and liberals were guilty of this.
Frei (what is the "Eclipse")
1) Referential theory of meaning--meaning that lies behind, outside the text, in history or an idea. This caused biblical narrative to disappear.

2) Rise in apologetic approaches to Scripture to verify that they're true. They became viewed as objects and not texts.

3) Biblical narrative was shaped by the interpreter, not the reverse (ala Schleiermacher).
Frei (how the problem came about)
1) History-like writing (e.g., biblical narratives) was confused as history (actual recording of historical facts)

2) Sense of the text was confused with the significance. Meaning (objectively speaking) and one's belief in the meaning became one. Understand require involvement in the text's concern (ala Schleiermacher).
Frei (realistic narratives)
Biblical narratives are realistic narratives. "The meaning of a realistic narrative is a function of the narrative itself. Realistic narratives render the identity of their characters through the interaction of the characters with their social context. Therefore, the subject matter of.a realistic narrative is not separable from the shape of the narrative itself; rather, the rendering of the major character in the realistic narrative is the means by which the subject matter of the text is specified. Therefore, all "subject-matter" hermeneutics, such as Heilsgeshichte, which attempt to interpret the text through what is claimed to be the text's true subject matter, are wrong in that they first equate the meaning of the text with the separable subject matter of the text and then view the words of the text in light of the subject matter. Meaning is thus brought to the text from the reader's self-positioning toward the text instead of emerging out of the text itself. Contrary to this "subject-matter" hermeneutics, Frei claims that what the Synoptic Gospels render as realistic narratives is the identity of Jesus of Nazareth. This identity is the subject matter and the meaning of these texts."
Frei (realistic narrative #2)
". . . the location of meaning in narrative of the realistic sort is the text, the narrative structure or sequence itself. If one asks if it is the subject matter or the verbal sense that ought to have priority in the quest for understanding, the answer would be that the question is
or redundant" (280).

"It is this identity of form and content, of the text and its proper 'reality' (if I may put it that way), which forms that particular Gestalt which is realistic narrative. Frei variously calls the form or shape a bond, a web, a pattern, a story; an identity; an interaction; and, as above, a cohesion. What is held together or present in and through the text alone are: a person, agents, speech, verbal communications, circumstances, social context, character, incident, and continuity. This last content, continuity, is expressed in several ways as temporal framework, chronological continuity, occurrence pattern, and temporal sequence, and by the adverbs 'cumulatively' and 'accretively.' "
Frei (realistic narrative #3)
Realistic narrative are grounded in history, but are designed to convey history. They are history-like.
Frei (questions about Frei's position)
1) Could not a realistic narrative be both moving and meaningful, and yet be historically false (11)?

2) Is it clear that Frei has escaped the "subject-matter" hermeneutics which he rejects? Isn't the identity of Jesus as the Messiah only another subject matter in light of which Frei reads the Gospels?