:: Ryan Thomas ::

This content come from Mere Christian Hermeneutics. Vanhoozer, K. Zondervan. 2024.

For our next installment of my review of Dr. Kevin Vanhoozer’s latest book I’m going to briefly touch on a point that he repeatedly makes throughout: biblical studies and biblical theology need to reconcile their differences and become friends once again.

First, let’s define the terms a bit:

Biblical Studies:

This is the field of study that focuses on the text itself. We’re talking about the Greek and Hebrew nerds (like myself) who love debating the syntax of one of Paul or Luke’s many hapax legomenas. It’s about making outlines of biblical books, doing verse by verse exegesis, analyzing historical timelines and memorizing the Israeli monarchs and prophets. Biblical Studies asks “What makes up the Bible?”

Biblical Theology:

This is the field of study that focuses on broad themes within the text. You might ask, “what is salvation?” Well, we look at the whole of the Bible to find out. That conclusion we call “soteriology” – the study of salvation. Since that information is not bound up in one verse or passage, we have to infer or deduce the doctrine from multiple points of information. Biblical Theology asks “what is the Bible saying overall?”

Without getting into the fascinating (potentially boring) details as to why these two don’t always play nice with one another, I’ll just note that Dr. V. does a great job summarizing and explaining the history. And he calls for the two to quit fighting for supremacy, and to, rather, act more like the Hebraic idea of “ezer” toward one another (the term used to describe Eve – a critical pairing support).

He uses examples from C. S. Lewis and Soren Kierkegaard to help us understand these difference and how they align.

Lewis speaks of “looking at” versus “looking along” something. Imagine you’re in a dark room with a crack in the wall. Outdoor light is sending a beam through the dark room. In the beam of light you can see dust particles floating about. You might get caught up looking “at” the light – or what it reveals. And that is important. But you also need to follow the beam up the light – looking “along” it – to the source of that light.

Kierkegaard uses a mirror analogy. We can look at a mirror and examine its parts. We can notice the frame and what it’s made of, or perhaps we spot imperfections in the reflective quality of the glass. It’s important to understand the mirror ontologically, but we also need to participate in the purpose of the mirror. It’s purpose is reflection. And the purpose of the reflection is that we could see ourselves more clearly.

Biblical Studies looks “at” the light and the mirror. Biblical Theology looks “along” the light beam and focuses on the reflection in the mirror.

Neither is right or wrong. Neither is more important than another. Every Christian needs to know a little bit about both. Every Christian needs to listen to a wide variety of scholars & teachers on both.

(Note: these examples come from pages 50 – 51 in the book.)