R-3 Repository :: Browsing by Author "Kelber, Werner H."

Browsing by Author "Kelber, Werner H."

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(De) Constructing the (Non)Being of God: A Trinitarian Critique of Postmodern A/Theology
(1995) Keith Putt, B.; Nielsen, Niels C.; Kelber, Werner H.; Crowell, Steven G.
Langdon Gilkey maintained in 1969 that theological language was in "ferment" over whether "God" could be expressed in language. He argued that "radical theology," specifically the kenotic christology in Altizer's "death of God" theology, best represented that ferment. Some twenty-five years later, in the postmodern context of the 199's, whether one can speak of God and, if so, how remain prominent issues for philosophers of religion and theologians. One of the most provocative contemporary approaches to these questions continues to focus on the "death of God." Mark Taylor's a/theology attempts to "do" theology after the divine demise by thinking the end of theology without ending theological thinking. Taylor's primary thesis, predicated upon his reading of Jacques Derrida's deconstructive philosophy, is that God gives way to the sacred and the sacred may be encountered only within the "divine milieu" of writing. God is dead, the self is dead, history has no structure, and language cannot be totalized in books; consequently, theology must be errant and textually disseminative. Unfortunately, Taylor's a/theology as a hermeneutic of the "death of God" fails to leave God's existence undecidable and also fails to address substantively the ethical implications of postmodernism. The radical hermeneutics of John Caputo offers a significant supplement to Taylor's thought and a critical reconstruction of alternative postmodern models for God. Caputo's "armed neutrality" concerning the being of God and his insistence on the inescapability of ethical obligation allow for a deconstruction of ontotheology and the reconstruction of a "biblical" paradigm of a suffering God. Caputo's focus on the ethico-religious dynamic of alterity and difference suggests a postmodern christology, since he believes that Jesus exemplifies the poetics of obligation that seeks to heal wounded flesh. Yet, scripture presents Jesus as the revelation of a suffering, heterophilic God. Contaminating Caputo's poetics of obligation with Jürgen Moltmann's theology of the crucified God results in the repetition of a "biblical" theopassional theology that accepts the undecidability inherent within history and language, but which, through fear and trembling, acknowledges that God loves alterity and difference and desires that human beings do also.
Deconstructing general hermeneutics / (re)constructing a Biblical hermeneutic
(1993) Khushf, George Peter; Kelber, Werner H.
The post-modern predicament can be seen in the conflict between general hermeneutics and deconstruction. General hermeneutics seeks to develop the "modern" project of understanding understanding. It is concerned with universality and meaning, sublimating otherness and difference in the "merging of horizons". Deconstruction subverts such a drive to universality, seeking to open up differences where there is a presumed unity. It tears horizons apart. Protestant interpretation of Scripture has been closely associated with general hermeneutics. However, an evaluation of Rudolf Bultmann's thought shows how any so-called general hermeneutic involves implicit commitments to natural theology which conflict with doctrines of special revelation that are implied by the principles of sola fide and sola gratia. In this way the generality of general hermeneutics is deconstructed. Instead of beginning with an independently derived hermeneutic, which directs the interpretation of Biblical texts, one should begin with the kerygmatic content, and develop its hermeneutical implications. Through a careful examination of the implications of Luther's account of justification, it can be seen that the point of departure for interpretation is not a generally determinable "plain sense" of the text, but rather a particularly determined ambiguity, opacity and polyvalence. Through the text's content, which is the Word of God, there is a metaphorical transfer from a grammatical metaphoricity to a divine metaphoricity, in which an initial linguistic displacement in the text is reduplicated existentially as a shift from the indeterminate absence to the hidden presence of God. This metaphorical metaphoricity provides an alternative to Babel, which is the Derridian "metaphor of metaphors". The metaphorical metaphoricity that grounds justification can be seen in the incarnation, which is thematized by John's Gospel. Through an account of the logic and rhetoric of revelation in John's text, a hermeneutic of revelation can be derived, which does justice to the unique dynamics of Scripture and its function in the Christian community. The singular juxtaposition of universality and particularity that takes place in the incarnation provides a third alternative to the competing movements that constitute the post-modern predicament.
Descent and ascent in the Fourth Gospel: The Johannine deconstruction of the heavenly ascent revelatory paradigm
(1990) Holleman, C.P. Toby, Jr; Kelber, Werner H.
The otherworldly depiction of Jesus in coordination with the origin and function of descent-ascent language in the Gospel of John is the subject of this study. In Chapter One it is found that the gospel explicitly and repeatedly refers to Jesus' heavenly origin, his divine titles, his descent from heaven, and his ascent back to his celestial home in order to emphasize his preeminent revelatory authority. Furthermore, it would appear that the gospel attempts to suppress a competing revelatory point of view in which heavenly visions and heavenly ascensions by mortals are normative. A review in Chapter Two of the way in which modern scholars have attempted to come to terms with these matters indicates that the Fourth Gospel depicts its protagonist according to one trans-cultural conceptual paradigm containing a descent-ascent pattern for revelatory figures in order to oppose an alternative paradigm in which both divine descent-ascent and human ascent-descent patterns are present. Focusing upon ancient Jewish and Christian angel stories, Chapter Three demonstrates that an essential difference between the two paradigms has to do with whether the locus of divine-human discourse is earth or heaven. In the EARTHBOUND paradigm revelation is transmitted solely upon the earth and the heavenly messenger possesses unrivaled revelatory authority. But in the alternative HEAVENWARD paradigm the role and status of the heavenly messenger are patently subordinated to the mortal who is permitted to see if not actually journey up into the celestial world. Chapter Four's selective but narratologically-informed reading of the Gospel of John shows how the gospel's depiction of its protagonist according to the EARTHBOUND paradigm methodically suppresses and deconstructs revelatory and salvific beliefs rooted in the HEAVENWARD viewpoint. Of particular interest is the way in which an historically necessary departure from the EARTHBOUND schema, by ironically representing the ascent of Jesus as a lifting up upon the cross, effectively puts to death (from the gospel's point of view) ideas about the possibility of mortals ascending to heaven with or without Jesus prior to the end of their own lives.
Jesus' parables, language and the common world: A response to Dominic Crossan's theology of story
(1989) Valenta, Susan Hunnicutt; Kelber, Werner H.
For the last decade Dominic Crossan has been at the forefront of the movement from an historical to a language-based paradigm for interpretation of the New Testament. Much of his work during this time has addressed the theological interpretation of reversals in Jesus' parables. Many reviewers of Crossan's work have expressed concern that in his theology of story the "common world" which is created in language is disqualified as a place where God may be encountered. This distortion results from Crossan's use of literary critical methodologies, which falsify the relation of language to the human life-world. A phenomenological reflection on the spoken word and on the temporal and relational characteristics of oral communication leads to a more appropriate linguistic/theological context for interpreting reversals in the parables.
Jewish Christianity in Galatians: A study of the teachers and their gospel
(1991) Arnold, James Phillip; Kelber, Werner H.
The subject of this study is the identity of the Jewish Christian teachers in Galatians and their alternative gospel. This investigation concerns their origins, their theology, and their place in Second Temple Judaism and Jewish Christianity. It is discovered that they are not "legalists" or reducible to mere "opponents" of Paul. Instead, the teachers are Jewish Christian charismatic nomists proclaiming their interpretation of the gospel to the Galatians. In Chapter One, a history of research on the identification of the teachers is presented from the patristic period to the modern period. Programmatic issues are developed which provide direction and parameters for this study. Chapter Two examines the teachers' historical origins and their own "apostolic" authority as well as their relation to Paul. The chapter also investigates the teachers' understanding of Abraham and the covenant of circumcision, as well as their use of Moses and the Sinai covenant. In Chapter Three the soteriology and the christology of the teachers' gospel are developed. Their gospel's use of the Law (nomos) as a medium of charismatic revelations (pneuma) is examined. The function of circumcision and the calendar for accessing heavenly revelations is explored. The teachers' christology is seen to portray Jesus as a Teacher of the Law whose "law of Christ" provides the hermeneutic by which selective obedience to the Law is determined. Chapter Four attempts to locate the teachers and their tradition in Jewish and Jewish Christian history and sources. Jewish intertestamental literature, including the pseudepigrapha and Qumran sources, is investigated. Also, the teachers' specific relationship to the Jerusalem community--the "pillars" and the pseudadelphoi is examined. Other Jewish Christian law-observant traditions similar to the teachers' tradition are located in Colossians, the Kergymata Petrou, and the Book of Elkesai. The teachers are shown to be Jewish Christian charismatic nomists with an integral gospel and independent Gentile mission. They are part of a Torah-observant tradition within the Jesus Movement which offered the venerable and wondrous Jewish Torah to the Gentiles as a means for experiencing greater degrees of charismatic life in the Spirit.
Plato's critique of rhetoric and the transition from orality in ancient Greece: The "Gorgias" and the "Phaedrus" revisited
(1991) Holloway, Paul Andrew; Kelber, Werner H.
The political and cultural forces of Periclean Athens brought rhetoric to the fore as the master knowledge. Through the school of Isocrates this perspective continued into the fourth century. Read in this context Plato's degrading attack on rhetoric in the Gorgias can readily be reconciled with his surprisingly positive treatment of it in the Phaedrus. In the Gorgias he does not debunk rhetoric per se, but only rhetorical culture, that is, rhetoric as conceived by his contemporaries as chief among the arts, $\eta$ $\kappa\alpha\lambda\lambda\iota\sigma\tau\eta$ $\tau\omega\nu$ $\tau\varepsilon\chi\nu\omega\nu$. On the other hand, in the Phaedrus he recommends rhetoric conceived in a limited sense as simply one art among many. This is supported by the recent work of Robert Conners who interprets Plato's criticism of rhetorical culture in light of the transition from oral to literate culture in fourth-century Greece.
Secret epiphanies: The hermeneutics of revealing and concealing in the Fourth Gospel
(1994) Hancock, Frank Charles, III; Kelber, Werner H.; Carroll, Isla; Turner, Percy E.
In this thesis I attempt to demonstrate that the so-called "Johannine problem" is deeply involved in the hermeneutical issues of concealing and revealing, secrecy and mystery. Thus, the "Johannine problem" is re-constituted in a narrative that deconstructs unity and coherence through a dynamic process of concealing and disclosure, disclosure and concealing. With that as the operating thesis, it follows that the goal of this project is to demonstrate that the Gospel of John resists interpretation and understanding when read on its own terms. In Chapter 1 Johannine secrecy is placed in the context of the work of William Wrede who first introduced the notion of secrecy into gospel studies, and in doing so, raised the issue of understanding in biblical hermeneutics. When Wrede applied the secrecy motif to the Fourth Gospel, he concluded that the notion of Jesus as a bringer of truth and light is not fully sustained in the narrative of John's Gospel as an unbroken whole, or as a closely conceived idea. In Chapter 2 Rudolf Bultmann's hermeneutic and exposition of the Fourth Gospel is presented as an example of one who has astutely perceived the central issues with which a specifically modern program for biblical interpretation must wrestle; that is, the alien character of the world views represented in biblical texts. Bultmann observed how the tension between concealing and revealing is implicated in the mythological language used by the Fourth Evangelist. Bultmann, however, was preoccupied with the existential categories of Martin Heidegger and thus missed the turn when Heidegger moved toward a hermeneutic of language. It is only when language is thought of as the disclosure of being that religious texts can be thought of as "vehicles of revelation." In Chapter 3 Martin Heidegger's hermeneutic of concealing and revealing is introduced through his concept of aletheia, or truth as the interplay between concealing and revealing. It is this concept which provides the cornerstone of this thesis. In Heidegger's terms, secrecy is the ground of revelation. Heidegger's philosophical categories open new possibilities for reading gospel narratives because the tension between concealing and revealing is now considered as a hermeneutical obstacle to full disclosure and understanding. Thus, what gospel narratives reveal is also withdrawn again into concealment, thus making the valid interpretation sought by traditional critics extremely difficult to achieve. In the final two chapters of this thesis the Prologue of the Fourth Gospel (John 1:1-18) and the story of the trial of Jesus before Pilate (John 18:28-19:16a) are examined as test cases for the hermeneutic developed by Heidegger. Using Heidegger's hermeneutical categories I show that the Gospel of John is as much a story about concealing as it is about revelation. The narrative pushes toward the full disclosure of Jesus as the truth and the light, but this revelation takes place in concealing. Revelation is promised, but the promise is left unfulfilled. Truth is disclosed in the person of Jesus, and then qualified in ways that leave the reader in doubt about the nature of truth. In the final analysis, this thesis argues that the Gospel of John victimizes the reader by undermining meaning, concealing revelation, and preventing disclosure in ways unforeseen by either traditional historical criticism or the newer literary criticism.
Spirituality, discernment and tradition in Ignatius Loyola, Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross
(1992) Perez, Carlos Santiago; Kelber, Werner H.
This thesis examines the process of discernment as described by three Spanish Catholic mystics of the sixteenth century: Ignatius Loyola (1492-1556), Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), and John of the Cross (1542-1591). Discernment refers to the process of distinguishing those things which are of God from those which are not. This thesis demonstrates that all three of these mystics had specific criteria by which they evaluated their mystical experiences to determine whether or not they were from God, shows that there are important commonalities between their discernment criteria, and argues that these criteria in large part derive from their social and historical setting.
The Gospel and narrative performance: The critical assessment of meaning-as-correspondence in D. F. Strauss and R. Bultmann
(1992) Moore, Robert George; Kelber, Werner H.
The concept of meaning-as-correspondence is developed and employed to demonstrate how in the modern period the meaning of a narrative is conceived as a separate entity from the narrative itself. Meaning-as-correspondence is manifest in three modes: (1) as a referent to which a narrative points, (2) as an object that a narrative describes or (3) as a content that a narrative contains. As a preunderstanding of narrative, meaning-as-correspondence eclipses the power of narrative. The enervating effect of meaning-as-correspondence on the interpretation of the gospels is demonstrated. The work of the Mythical School, D. F. Strauss and R. Bultmann is assessed. All employed a concept of myth to the gospels which presupposed that the meaning of the gospels was a separate entity from the narrative. Members of the Mythical School conceived of meaning as an ideal or historical content. Strauss understood the gospels as mythical representations of a philosophical content which must be speculatively rendered into the language of idealism. Bultmann believed that the gospels referred to the early church's proclamation of the gospel, the kerygma. The concept of meaning-as-performance is presented as a way to re-conceive meaning as an event which occurs through narrative performance. The critical tools of narrative criticism are employed to understand the way gospel narratives are structured for the experience of reading/hearing. Reader-response criticism shifts attention from the objective critical plane to the pragmatic or rhetorical plane. The story of Jesus' healing of the blind beggar is used as a test case by which to contrast the methods of Strauss and Bultmann with a performative approach.
The Jesus Seminar's search for the authentic sayings of Jesus: An examination of phase one of the seminar's quest for the historical Jesus
(1999) Nelson, Randy Wayne; Kelber, Werner H.
During a six year period the Jesus Seminar evaluated 1,544 versions of 518 different sayings. The goal was to determine the authenticity of these sayings according to various degrees of historical reliability. The results constitute Phase One of the Seminar's efforts, and have since been published as The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus (1993). Although the Jesus Seminar has undertaken three more Phases, the purpose of this paper is to examine and evaluate only the first Phase. Part One, "Evaluating the Jesus Seminar's Work in Phase One," consists of two chapters. Chapter 1, "Phase One of the Jesus Seminar's Work," considers the beginnings of the Jesus Seminar, the two goals for Phase One, four motivations, methodologies, and the voting outcomes of the semiannual meetings. Chapter 2, "The Jesus Seminar and Its Critics," surveys the many objections that have been raised about the Seminar's work. In particular, scholars have challenged the Seminar's assumptions, methodologies, and results. Part Two, "Evaluating the Jesus Seminar's Quest for the Historical Jesus," likewise consists of two chapters. In chapter 3, "The Jesus Seminar and the Tradition of Quests," the various quests for the historical Jesus are surveyed, specifically, the Old Quest, the New Quest, and the Third Quest. The Jesus Seminar's quest finds its closest analogy in the Old Quest for the historical Jesus. Chapter 4, "A Modest Proposal for a Limited Quest," proposes a quest for the historical Jesus, albeit a limited quest. The limitation to the quest is largely due to the methodology employed, namely, historical criticism. In this chapter, the three steps of this method, i.e., research, synthesis, and implications, are delineated and evaluated for contributions and limitations.

Browsing by Author "Kelber, Werner H."

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