Hermeneutics - Selected Links

http://hermeneutics.kulikovskyonline.net/hermeneutics/hermeneutics.htm

Why Chosen:

This site is devoted to the subject of Hermeneutics. The new information on the site consists of perhaps twenty articles written by Andrew Kulikovsky over the past decade as part of an MDiv program that he was doing. His writing is conservative, methodical and detailed. In addition he has made clever use of frame to act as a portal for other resources that are useful to the study of Hermeneutics.

What Learnt:

Whilst I did read a few of the essays here and enjoyed the detailed hermeneutic approach it is really the structure of the site rather than any particular theological gems that attracted me. The site has a section upon History, Culture, Customs and Accuracy. There are also sections on Hebrew, Greek and other near eastern languages. The section on Biblical Manuscripts is also interesting although for me personally that is not a part of hermeneutics. The most germane section is the one on Hermeneutical Theory which features 3 articles by Kulikovsky and a section upon the Chicago Statement. There are then a set of links to resources such as dictionaries but also a detailed list of journals. The final section is a series of Sermons and Articles which again features a lot of Kulikovsky's work.

Would I Recommend:

I certainly would recommend this site. It was actually the only well presented, conservative site that specialized in hermeneutics that I was able to find. There are a good number of unique pieces of information and it serves as a good portal onto the best of the rest.

http://www.biblicalhermeneutics.net/bibliographyindex.html

Why Chosen:

This website really only has one function but it performs it very well. It aims to act as a giant bibliography for the subject of hermeneutics. It really consists of two lists; one is a list of thirty books on the subject each one having a paragraph of review attached. The other is a list of over three hundred references to scholarly articles on various aspects of hermeneutics.

What Learnt:

The website itself is really just a list so there is nothing that can be learnt directly: however I did follow a few of the links to see how many were fresh and what sort of articles were being pointed too. The first observation I would make is that most of these articles appear to be modern not simply in date but also approach. For example I read one lengthy article upon contemporary methods of hermeneutics and the concept of believing the Bible to be true was dismissed as an archaism.

Would Recommend:

This website constitutes a huge list of the information on hermeneutics that is out there; if you are studying hermeneutics itself then you probably need some of the documents on this list. For the purposes of actually performing hermeneutics, in other words understanding the Bible, then most of the articles documented are likely to harm rather than help.

http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/interpretation.php

Why Chosen:

This is a well maintained and nicely presented site offering access to a wide range of scholarly articles on many aspects of biblical studies. The subsection of the site I have noted here deals with the particular issue of biblical interpretation. Whilst the site is partially a bibliography with links to Amazon it also hosts a good number of articles itself.

What Learnt:

There are hundreds of articles on this site and I was only able to read a handful of them. However one was particularly impressive. It was partially an apologetic for the Grammatico-historical method; however it also provided a detailed ten point breakdown of the principles involved in Grammatico-historical interpretation. Whilst none of the points were a surprise to me this was the clearest expression of them I have seen. The same article also had an interesting enumeration of the common pitfalls of hermeneutics which was worth having read. Additionally there is a good article on figures of speech complete with a test at the end!

Would Recommend:

This site has or links to tens of articles that appear to be of good quality on the subject of hermeneutics. They are somewhat less scholarly than those referenced by biblicalhermeneutics.net although in my opinion what they lose in credibility they more than compensate for in approachability and conservatism.

http://www.endtimes.org/

Why Chosen:

This website is really not about hermeneutics; it is about eschatology. However it has a good clear apologetic for the literal grammatical method of biblical hermeneutics. It also has detailed information upon dispensationalism and the various covenants. What I particularly like is that it is heavily hyperlinked both to other significant articles but also to a very useful glossary.

What Learnt:

To be entirely frank as I didn't discover this website until I had completed the course and the collateral reading I probably didn't discover anything new at this website. However I did find an amount of information I had discovered elsewhere presented in a more concise and approachable form. The section upon dispensationalism and progressive revelation are particularly strong. The section on dispensational seminaries was also interesting. I believe this website also has the most convincing explanation of why the reformers all allegorized the second coming.

Would Recommend:

I think that for anyone that hasn't studied hermeneutics this website is an excellent introduction especially if someone's principle issue is with eschatological hermeneutics. It would also be a useful website to read early on in a hermeneutics course. Reading it when I did it was perhaps more of an aide memoir than a significant new find.

http://www.prca.org/articles/issues_in_hermeneutics.html

Why Chosen:

I chose this site because it ably demonstrates the importance of the hermeneutic system employed. This is essentially a series of articles written by a conservative professor in a denomination that is fighting both rampant and invidious liberalism. He therefore is able to provide extremely good insight into how subtly different methods of hermeneutics can allow widely variant doctrine to enter the church.

What Learnt:

The most interesting and challenging content regarded the subtle interactions between redaction criticism and the Grammatico-historical method of hermeneutics. He essentially argues against any form of interpretation outside of the use of scripture as it opens the door for a move between these methodologies. An interesting question he poses is: "If the Bible states something why do we also mention external 'proof' of the same thing?" Does this not set archaeology or secular history above the infallible word of God?

Would Recommend:

I would highly recommend this site for anyone that is within a group with a liberal tendency; it accurately details what can happen and acts as an apologetic against it. For others it may just be raising a set of issues they will never face. It certainly is an apologetic for literal hermeneutics, not a manual of them.