Most un-understandable topic in Divinity


A bit like Stirling Uni but less suicidal,  Nottingham University is scattered through an undulating green campus.  I recently gathered with 70 Thiseltonians for a Conference honouring the 75 year old star of modern Biblical Hermeneutics,  Prof Anthony Thiselton.  

He's a likeable John Stott type figure who broke down in tears when mentioning the support of his wife and family.  During the day seven academics presented papers looking at different angles of the subject.  

Now hermeneutics deals with how we communicate and understand things:  a film,  an Ibrox sign or a Pauline epistle.  It's currently the most important subject in Divinity.    Unfortunately the presentations were models of bad communication being papers read from manuscripts and not readily understandable.      But the chatting in-between was brilliant:

  •  "We live not according to the calendar but according to that which inspires us"  86 year old Jürgen Moltmann
  •  New Testament Christians used a pagan word for god,  theos,  but filled it with Christian meaning
  •  The Bible repeats the same story with slightly different content to fit what the writer is emphasizing


At the end of the conference I realized that hermeneutics is so interdisciplinary that nobody fully understands it - accept the one who is the Word.

Lake at Notthingam Uni campus

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