Fiorenza's Hermeneutical Authority

Schussler Fiorenza approaches the biblical text with a "hermeneutics of suspicion rather than with a hermeneutics of consent and affirmation." According to her feminist theory, "all texts are products of an androcentric patriarchal culture and history." Males not only wrote them but also have dominated their interpretation. Consequently, one must engage in a two-tier demythologization and "reclaim the Bible and early Christian history as women's beginnings and power." Because the text is the word of men, it is not authoritative and "cannot claim to be the revelatory Word of God." The Bible itself must be liberated from its "perpetuation and legitimization of such patriarchal oppression and forgetfulness of, silence about, or eradication of the memory of women's suffering."

Rather than appeal to a "canon within the canon"...Schussler Fiorenza calls for a "canon outside the canon." She proposes "that the revelatory canon for theological evaluation of biblical androcentric traditions and their subsequent interpretations cannot be derived from the Bible itself but can only be formulated in and through women's struggle for liberation from all patriarchal oppression." The New Testament is not the archetype--an ideal, unchanging, timeless pattern--but a prototype, an original, to be sure, but "critically open to the possibility of its own transformation." The text itself is no longer the interpretive authority; rather, the "personally and politically reflected experience of oppression and liberation must become the criterion of appropriateness for biblical interpretation and evaluation of biblical authority claims." The Bible "no longer functions as authoritative but as a resource for women's struggle for liberation."

In sum, "a feminist paradigm of critical interpretation is not based on a faithful adherence to biblical texts or obedient submission to biblical authority but on solidarity with women of the past and present whose life and struggles are touched by the role of the Bible in Western culture." Women's experience in their contemporary struggle against racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression is the standard by which to approach and interpret Scripture. Thus only those portions of Scripture "that transcend critically their patriarchal frameworks and allow for a vision of Christian women as historical and theological subjects and actors" are worthy to be considered divine revelation and truth.

from David Kling, The Bible in History (New York: Oxford, 2004), 302-303.

Foundational Texts

What verses/passages shape your theology? What verses/passages shape your life? What verses/passages give interpretive shape to other verses/passages in scripture? I think that you can learn a lot about the shape of a person's theology by identifying those foundational texts. We can learn a lot about our own theology by identifying our foundational texts.

As an exercise, I've listed 13 passages below. They are all critically important passages in their own way. Rank these texts 1 to 13 in terms of their importance in giving shape to your overall theology and discipleship. What does your ranking reveal about the shaping principles of your theology?

______Matthew 28:18-20 – “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

______Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

______1 John 4:8 – God is love.

______James 1:27 – Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

______Acts 2:38-39 – Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

______Revelation 4:8 – “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”

______Matthew 5:3-10 – “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

______Galatians 2:20 – I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

______Hebrews 11:1 – Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

______1 Peter 2:9-10 – But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

______Matthew 22:37-39 – Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”

______John 1:14 – The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

______Luke 24:5-6 – “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!

My Personal Top Ten

Each one of us has some sort of canon within a canon. Whether it is intentional or accidental, we all have those chapters that stick out with prominence from the rest of scripture. Verses, chapters, or sometimes entire books that hold a special level of importance for us. These are the passages that we often will commit to memory. These are the passages that seem to show up more than their fair share in our preaching, teaching, or counseling. Even those of us who are convinced that 2 Timothy 3:16 applies to all of scripture from Genesis through Revelation have this canon within a canon. It doesn't mean that they are more inspired than the rest of scripture, but they may in fact be more important.

Sometimes this can be a very bad thing. A canon within a canon can lead us into practices like prooftexting (ripping a scripture out of its context in order to support our dogma) or it can keep us from seeing the many perspectives on a particular issue offered in scripture as a whole. (I'm thinking specifically of the various passages that offer different perspectives on the role of women just as an example.) Having a canon within a canon may cause us to miss other issues altogether.

But this doesn't have to be a bad thing. The Bible is an awfully long, complex, and dense book. It seems necessary that there will be certain passages that will rise in importance because of their explanatory power - their ability to help us make sense of the larger whole. The rest of scripture hangs on these passages like a coat hangs on a hanger. Even the first Christians had a sort of canon within a canon. There were certain passages (like various Psalms like 110) that they came back to over and over again when trying to explain what had happened with Jesus.
With that in mind I've decided to identify what I believe are the ten most important chapters in the entire Bible. The following are not necessarily in any particular order other than their canonical order.

1. Genesis 3 - I include this chapter just because there is no message of scripture without the story of brokenness and rebellion of Genesis 3. Genesis 1 and 2 are obviously important, but Genesis 3 sets us up for the overarching narrative of scripture where God sets about fixing what went wrong in the Garden. Without a doubt the most important verse in this chapter is 15 which provides the first messianic promise.
2. Genesis 12 - I had a professor once who liked to say that this was the most important chapter of the Bible. I'm not sure I'd go that far, but it definitely deserves to go in the top ten since the calling of Abram and Sarai changes the entire shape of the rest of the OT. The OT from this point forward becomes the local story of the nation of Israel which would eventually give way to the story of the Messiah.
3. Psalm 23 - I included this psalm because of how much it has shaped our understanding of God. Through history even pagans have recognized this psalm when they hear it. There is something about this psalm that resonates for all people no matter how far or close they may be to God.
4. Matthew 5-7 - Kind of cheating here but you can't separate these three chapters. The Sermon on the Mount has to be included in this list. It is the most important summary of the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament.
5. Luke 15 - The lost chapter - lost sheet, lost coin, lost son. Like Psalm 23 and Matthew 5-7, even pagans are familiar with message of this text. If Matthew 5-7 provides a summary of the teachings of Jesus, Luke 15 provides a summary of his mission.
6. John 1 - The high christology of John 1 is why I included it in the list. You get similar ideas expressed in Colossians 1 and Hebrews 1. This text is essential for knowing about the nature of Christ.
7. Acts 2 - A case could be made for Acts 10 as well. I included Acts 2 however because it tells the story of the birth of the Church. The story of scripture is incomplete without this birth narrative.
8. Romans 8 - This chapter has it all: pneumatology, christology, soteriology, eschatology, etc. etc. There is no more important chapter in Romans and perhaps in all Pauline literature - other than perhaps the next chapter.
9. 1 Corinthians 15 - Without the resurrection our faith is futile. If the resurrection didn't happen nothing else matters. This chapter has additional apologetic benefit since the creed at the beginning of the chapter is likely one of the very first creedal statements concerning the resurrection of Jesus.
10. Revelation 21-22 - New heaven and new earth. The great reversal. No story is complete without its conclusion. Revelation 21-22 provides that beautiful picture of the final restoration of all things. Even popular culture has picked up on the images of heaven in Revelation 21-22 even if they are wrongly understood.

That's my list. What would be on your list? Anything that I left out that you would add?