Nov
29
“Webb’s hermeneutic is concerned with navigating between the world of the Bible and our own. Key to Webb’s thesis is the idea that we must observe the “movement” of the biblical text as it relates to its host culture. In some cases (e.g., slavery) the Bible represents movement away from the host culture toward a more generous ethic. In other cases (e.g., homosexuality) the Bible moves away from the host culture toward a more restrictive ethic. This “movement” of the Bible in relation to the host culture helps us discern the spirit of the text with a view to application in our contemporary context. When we see the Bible adopting a consistent posture toward the culture on a given topic, we appropriately project and apply this posture in our current context. Webb ultimately concludes in his book that the movement of Scripture as it relates to homosexuality is consistently restrictive, thus we should not attempt to override this movement in our contemporary context. The Bible’s stance on slavery and women, however, suggests the opposite. Webb notes that the Bible consistently adopts a more generous posture than the host culture on both of these issues, and thus the spirit of the Bible is in favor of abolition and egalitarianism.”
SAET » William Webb on Hermeneutics » The Society for the Advancement of Ecclesial Theology
