Playing with Scripture: Reading Contested Biblical Texts with Gadamer and Genre Theory

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Andrew Judd

Playing with Scripture

Reading Contested Biblical Texts with Gadamer and Genre Theory

Andrew Judd

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English

Routledge
06 May 2025

Literary theory; Philosophy; Religion: general

Series: Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Biblical Criticism

This book puts a creative new reading of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics and literary genre theory to work on the problem of Scripture. Reading texts as Scripture brings two hermeneutical assumptions into tension: that the text will continually say something new and relevant to the present situation, and that the text has stability and authority over readers. Given how contested the Bible’s meaning is, how is it possible to ‘read Scripture’ as authoritative and relevant? Rather than anchor meaning in author, text or reader, Gadamer’s phenomenological model of hermeneutical experience as Spiel (‘play’) offers a dynamic, intersubjective account of how understanding happens, avoiding the dead end of the subjective–objective dichotomy. Modern genre theory addresses some of the criticisms of Gadamer, accounting for the different roles played by readers in different genres using the new term Lesespiel (‘reading game’). This is tested in three case studies of contested texts: the recontextualization of psalms in the book of Acts, the use of Hagar’s story (Genesis 16) in nineteenth-century debates over slavery and the troubling reception history of the rape and murder in Gibeah (Judges 19). In each study, the application of ancient text to contemporary situation is neither arbitrary, nor slavishly bound to tradition, but playful.

By: Andrew Judd
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 450g
ISBN: 9781032646572
ISBN 10: 1032646578
Series: Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Biblical Criticism
Pages: 228
Publication Date: 06 May 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Andrew Judd is a Lecturer in Old Testament at Ridley College, Melbourne and the Australian College of Theology.