Yolanda Dreyer

From “The Depleted Self” to “The Will to Believe”: Excavating the Hermeneutics of Donald Capps

The concept of “reframing” lies at the heart of the pastoral psychology of Donald Capps. In previous articles I have argued that the process of reframing follows a circular hermeneutics. An excavation of Capps’ hermeneutics reveals foundations in the fields of philosophy and psychology. This article focuses on the legacy of Johann Gottfried von Herder, Friedrich Schleiermacher, William James and Paul Ricoeur. It explores the differences and commonalities between William James and Friedrich Schleiermacher’s understanding of religious experience as well as Paul Ricoeur’s understanding of narrativity and traces these strains to Capps’ pastoral psychology. As illustration of his pastoral approach to healing and wholeness the problem of “the depleted self,” so prevalent in “our narcissistic age,” encounters the healing narrative of Jesus that appeals to “the will to believe.”

The meeting of worlds and the principle of sola Scriptura

The meeting of worlds and the principle of sola Scriptura . Rather than function as a catalyst for unity, the Bible can be the cause of conflict among Christian believers. The Bible is also often the reason for strife, specifically in the Reformed tradition, even though Protestants uphold the creedal truism of sola Scriptura and though the authority of the Bible is seen as selfmandatory, transcending the normative power of ecclesiastical or confessional traditions. This article focuses on biblical interpretation as both a cause of disunity and a possible means to achieve greater unity. The point of departure is that biblical interpretation consists of a fusion of horizons; it is primarily about the fusion of two horizons, namely that of the Bible and that of the reader. However, both these horizons represent a great diversity of perspectives. A variety of readers interpret the Bible from diverse contexts. The Bible itself also communicates a diversity of ideas. Even the notion ‘Jesus Christ’ does not function as a unified or unifying concept. The article proposes that the idea of ‘Jesus’ cause’ ( Sache Jesu ) could provide continuity between the world of the reader and the world of a biblical passage.

Resilience as answer to the problem of church schism

Resilience as answer to the problem of church schism. The article investigates theories of resilience as applied to individuals and groups. From a group perspective, the potential of and obstacles to resilience are examined against the backgound of post-apartheid South Africa. Individual perpetrators and victims, as well as corporate bodies such as institutionalised faith communities have been affected. For the liberation of South Africa’s wounded soul, resilience is needed. In the article, psychological dimensions of resilience theory are brought into dialogue with the theological hermeneutical model of Ernst Fuchs in order to show how an encounter with the Jesus narrative of care for wounded people can foster resilience, liberate and bring healing to both faith communities and to this predominantly religious country.

Book Review: The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity. By Peter Brown. Twentieth Anniversary Edition. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2008. Pp. lxviii + 504. Paper,

171 of slavery in the New Testament, supplying readers with a balanced analysis of the tensions between church and culture found in New Testament passages related to the oppressive social institution. Ample (but not exhausting) footnotes and annotated bibliographies at the end of each chapter provide up-to-date resources for readers interested in pursing any particular topic in more detail. There is also an additional annotated bibliography of primary sources at the end of the book, followed by a general bibliography, an illustration listing, and indices of subjects, important persons, and scriptural and ancient sources. Numerous charts, illustrations, photographs, and maps make this a very attractive volume. A book such as this one inevitably invites quibbles over omitted material. The Essenes, for instance, are briefly covered in the chapter on John the Baptist, but one might be inclined to agree with the ancient Jewish historian Josephus that they were one first-century Jewish group significant enough to merit an extended treatment. Similarly, the chapter on Greek philosophers has useful descriptions of Epicureans and Stoics; yet it does not engage the Cynics and their potential impact on the New Testament writings. To cite one final omission, a chapter on women in the world of the New Testament would have contributed a great deal to this volume. Simmons himself notes in the preface that “the presentation on the Greco-Roman world is generally arranged in terms of power, beginning with the Roman imperial rulers and ending with the section on slaves and freedmen and freedwomen” (p. 11). Given this structural emphasis on the issue of power, a chapter on women as a group— or perhaps chapters on groups of/including women (e.g., widows [but cf. 176–78], households, matrons, etc.)—might have remedied this important lacuna. These caveats aside, this book offers readers a solid introduction to the religious, political, and social context of the New Testament. It would be a particularly good choice as a supplementary textbook for introductory courses on the New Testament, although pastors, church teachers, and some graduate students will also find it useful. David J. Downs Fuller Theological Seminary Pasadena, CA, 91182