About this title: This volume by William J. Webb explores the hermeneutical maze that accompanies any treatment of these three controversial topics and takes a new step toward breaking down walls within the evangelical community related to them.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
"Another challenging book from the egalitarian perspective. Exhaustive (and exhausting!). Articulates a redemptive-movement hermeneutic that is worth consideration, but is not without problems and raises a considerable amount of questions."
"In this profound work, Webb raises the essential question of biblical studies: how do we apply the text? Application, as it were, is often a matter of understanding culture, both of the original audience and of the modern reader. Through a series of 18 criteria (e.g. preliminary movement, seed ideas, and breakouts), Webb constructs a "hermeneutic of cultural analysis" - a method for understanding the place and influence of culture in the original text. Often times, these criteria point to the transcultural nature of a text (e.g. those texts regarding homosexuality); other times, however, this process indicates a redemptive movement in the text relative to the original culture (e.g. those texts regarding slavery and women). This redemptive movement, Webb argues, asks the reader to identify the "ultimate ethic," which moves beyond the culturally situated words of certain texts. Whatever one's position on these issues, Webb offers an engaging and important contribution to the hermeneutics of culture. A"
"Through the examination of three controversial issues in the church historically and/or currently, Webb provides a framework for "the hermeneutics involved in distinguishing that which is merely cultural in Scripture from that which is timeless." He presents a set of 18 or so criteria that can help us determine how scripture texts apply to our current context. He explains each of the criteria and then assesses the three controversial issues in his title in light of those criteria. While his final conclusions on the three controversial issues are important, the book is most valuable for providing anyone with a framework of distinguishing what is cultural and what is transcendent in scripture."
"I just can't bring myself to give 5 stars to a book on hermeneutics - I don't consider myself that much of a braniac (and I don't give 5 stars to too much anyway - 4 stars is pretty fabulous for me - and my wife Miska has issues with me on this already, so don't start...). Still, if we are comparing apples to apples, of all the like-genre books I've read (and there have been more than a few stemming back to college and seminary), this may be the most formative to date. I got bogged down a bit about midway through the list of 18 criteria he gives, but still...the overarching themes are provoking, thoughtful, hopeful.
This book was sitting on my bedside table for quite a while; and I had the sense that it was going to be a pivotal read for me. It did not disappoint.
I'd like to step away and think through a few of my questions. There are some places where I think Webb offered as fact a few opinions that felt more like, well, opinions. But on the whole, I thought he was fair and straightforward.
I'm intrigued about how this hermeneutic might push one toward pacifism. I know that it helped me process current questions in multiple directions.
And I like his descriptions, as much as I can like any such thing. I think I must be an "egalitarian complementarian" (or something awfully close)."
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