biblical hermeneutics

This website continues the work of my earlier site, http://www.biblicalhermeneutics.net, which has fallen into disuse.

The main purpose of the site is to offer links to online resources for the study of biblical hermeneutics: that is, texts and websites which  may be useful for biblical-hermeneutical reflection.To this end, you will find some 25 pages listed in the menu on the right which categorize the links. I do not have time to annotate the links – I hope to maintain the pages by adding new links and updating broken links, but that is about all I can offer. I have also added the occasional book review on related books sent to me for review.

When I started this in 2002 or 2003, I thought of it as a single, short resource page for students on my hermeneutics-related courses, but as it grew and grew I eventually realised that this might be of interest to a broader user group. So here we are.

Biblical hermeneutics can be defined in at least two main ways: firstly, as ‘methods of interpretation’, which is perhaps closer to the ancient understanding of the Greek verb ἑρμηνεύειν (hERMENEUEIN) – thus Biblical hermeneutics is understood as virtually synonymous with “methodology of Biblical interpretation”, specifically in the sense of devising ‘rules’ for ‘correct Biblical interpretation’ (this use of the term tends to be popular in conservative circles). Secondly, taking into account the use of the term “hermeneutics” especially since Schleiermacher, biblical hermeneutics can be understood in a much broader sense as the fundamental philosophical and theological assumptions ‘behind’ different methods of interpretation.
The focus of my site is on resources associated with the latter understanding of Biblical hermeneutics (if you are looking for the former, you might want to begin with Andrew Kulikovsky‘s site) — and as with all links on my site, please do not interpret a link as an endorsement on my part (as it happens, I would disagree with most views expressed on Kulikowsky’s site). I only endorse my own views, and often not even those. Anyway, since hermeneutics in the broader sense in which I use it here frequently brings up the problem of methods of interpretation, as well as the classic problem of the authority of Scripture, these will also be taken into account on this site.

This site is run by Holger Szesnat. I grew up in Germany (1965-1987), where I began to study theology. Through a complicated and not exactly planned sequence of events – let the reader interpret, to paraphrase Mark 13:14 – I then found myself in South Africa for some time (1987-1998), where I lived, learned, and tried to teach as well (University of KwaZulu-Natal; University of the Limpopo). A short spell at the Pacific Theological College in Suva, Fiji Islands, followed (1998-2001), and then eight long years in Cambridge, UK, working for the Eastern Region Ministry Course. I am now back at the Pacific Theological College, teaching New Testament. Contact details on my current work website.