A.K.M. Adam, Faithful Interpretation: Reading the Bible in a Postmodern World (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2006), ix + 193 Pps., $20.00.
A.K.M. Adam is Professor of New Testament at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, and is also a priest at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston. He is author of What Is Postmodern Biblical Criticism? (1995). Due to his published books, Adam has become one of the leading voices in postmodern criticism. This present text brings together some of his original essays that introduce postmodern interpretation and argues its urgent importance for the life of the contemporary church. He proposes that readers who want more than the results of conventional critical scholarship need to rethink some deeply held presuppositions of twentieth-century biblical hermeneutics. He contends throughout that the historical-critical method, though serving admirably, does not exhaust the work of interpretative reflection, nor does it set the terms on which further reflection must proceed. He notes that the many scholars today errantly hold to the notion that a text contains a subsistent meaning, inherent within it (2).
Moreover, he contends that many contemporary scholars tend to treat all interpretative deliberation as more or less approximate to verbal communication, which errantly reduces texts to having one – and only one – meaning. This posit of ‘monovalence’ pits interpreter against interpreter, for only ‘one’ can be right. So then, he boldly asserts that the notion of subsistent meaning is a ‘myth’. He proposes instead that meaning derives from the experience of attempting to arrive at a shared understanding (5). The advantage to this account of meaning, he claims, is that it shifts attention from hidden properties of a text toward our role in proposing, approving, and evoking agreement over meaning.
The chapters of this book approach the task of hermeneutics with various points of emphasis, along various trajectories. Each chapter sets out to clarify understanding by transitioning away from modern, technical interpretation, toward a hermeneutic that better fits an interactive and flexible approach to meaning. For example, chapter one considers the relationship between modern biblical scholarship and the goal of a satisfying theological interpretation of Scripture. Therein, he proposes that the definitions by which biblical theology and New Testament theology establish their disciplinary identity include elements necessarily attached to the axiomatic assumptions of the modern worldview, which are not apropos for contemporary culture. Within chapter two, Adam confronts the common rationale for assigning for assigning historical-critical analysis the authority to adjudicate questions of interpretive legitimacy: that is, the position that only the historian can bring to light the historical actuality of Jesus’ identity. In doing this, he contends that the defense of historical-critical authority misconstrues the historical nature of Docetism.
The third chapter of this book takes up the problem of subsistent meaning and textual agency directly. Therein, he argues that texts do not possess characteristics that promote or resist various interpretations. However, this assertion does not make a text mean anything that an interpreter desires for it to mean. Rather, interpretations always involve social and environmental mediation. In the fourth chapter, Adam pursues the question of meaning and ethics in reference to the Gospel of Matthew’s invective against Jesus’ rivals and enemies, and notes that it should be treated as ‘anti-Pharasaic’ rather than ‘anti-Judaic’. He avers that whereas Christians have certainly drawn upon Matthew for their – at times – anti-Jewish bigotry, they should not blame Matthew for that bigotry. Chapter five returns to the theoretical dimensions of hermeneutics, and discusses the relative benefits and drawbacks of interpretive methods that stress either univocality and correctness, or multiple meanings and soundness. He notes that the former upholds the notion that meaning subsists in text, whereas the later locates meaning not within the text itself, but within the manifold interactions of humans with texts. This later methodology better fits the capacities and moral limitations of the interpreters, and allows a broader range of interpretive expression, he therein contends.
The sixth chapter considers the high importance of living-out one’s interpretation of the bible, with special attention being paid to the complications that attend to people who attempt to imitate Christ. Chapter seven tests the claims of the modern, scientifically-influenced hermeneutics against the evidence of actual interpretive practice; pointedly, he contends that twentieth-century scholars give no clear indication that their shared commitment to scientific investigative methods has brought them closer to interpretative consensus. Chapter eight makes a controversial turn toward the application of his proposal to a pertinent issue in today’s church: the legitimacy of homosexual relationships. Therein, he develops criteria for discerning what characteristics mark holiness in intimacy within human relationships.
Written over a fifteen year period, the individual chapters of this book begin from a critical investigation of the once prevalent theoretical background for New Testament theology and gradually sketch a method for articulating a sounder approach to the theological interpretation of the Bible. And though some people may not agree with his application, this text is nonetheless an invigorating read on the growing movement toward postmodern interpretation. As such, I recommend it to those who have interests in postmodern hermeneutical theory.
Bradford McCall
Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA