Edward Schillebeeckx and Hans Frei: A Conversation on Method and Christology

8 Biblical Interpretation and Jesus the Christ

145 8 BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION AND JESUS THE CHRIST 8.1 Biblical Interpretation In the previous chapter, I outlined the differences between Schillebeeckx and Frei on issues of doctrine and their respective understanding of theology and theological method. My claim was that the use of a certain theological method was not only based on their theological perspectives but also directed by their questions. I will now compare and contrast their ways of interpreting the biblical narrative. For their theological methods become most manifest in their respective styles of biblical interpretation . What both authors believe theology to be, and how it relates to other disciplines, become most clear in the way they read the biblical text. Their different understandings of revelation are reflected in the way the two authors approach the biblical text. Because for Schillebeeckx revelation is mediated in human experience, the Bible is seen as the document that gives access to the revelation of God through the experience of the disciples and the early church. Thus, the Bible forms the constitution or “charter” for Christians. In his words, “as the Church’s ‘charter’ or foundation document, there can be no substitute for the New Testament’s authority” (Schillebeeckx 1979: 59). In this way, the Bible offers an interpretive framework for subsequent experiences of revelation. If the Bible is seen as the original document of revelation through the experience of the disciples and Jesus, then it follows that in interpreting the Bible it is the experience of the disciples and Jesus that is sought. However, the experience of the disciples and Jesus witnesses to the reality of God. In other words, the interpreter of the biblical text is interested in the reality to which the biblical text is witness in and through the experience of the disciples and Jesus. “Taking the texts themselves as his point of departure, the interpreter therefore goes beyond the texts and their meaning and inquires about the reality to which the texts intentionally or unintentionally bear witness” (Schillebeeckx 1977: 33). The biblical text bears witness to the grace of God, experienced by Jesus Christ, the disciples and the early church. Methods such as the historical-critical method, literary-critical theories and a host of other methods are some of the tools that are used to uncover that experience. In the previous chapter, it was established that Schillebeeckx uses those different critical methods to assist him in interpreting the biblical message. The way in which Schillebeeckx uses different methods of biblical interpretation is governed by his understanding of the structure of experience (Schillebeeckx 1980b: 49). He usually starts with an analysis of language. He works with literary-critical methods to arrive at some understanding of what certain words and expressions meant, how they were used in the Hebrew Scriptures and how the New Testament writers also used them. Then he uses historical-critical methods to ascertain the historical situation of the community that gave rise to the particular writing, whether the community ’s specific historical situation or the wider historical situation. Then he ascertains the writing’s theological and philosophical background in an attempt to arrive at the different interpretive frameworks that were constitutive of the community ’s experience. All this is a means of to understanding how these disciples or the early community experienced and articulated their encounter with God. As was mentioned earlier, the above is only one element of biblical interpretation. There is also the need for analysis of the present situation in light of which the first element can make sense. Schillebeeckx writes: “What we are concerned with is rather a mutually critical correlation in which we attune our belief and action within the world in which we live, here and 146 A Conversation on Method and Christology Frei & Schillebeeckx: Biblical Interpretation and Jesus the Christ 147 now, to what is expressed in the Biblical tradition. This correlation therefore requires: 1. an analysis of our present world or even worlds of experience; 2. an analysis of the constant structures of the fundamental Christian experience about which the New Testament and the rest of the Christian tradition of experience speak, and 3. the critical correlation and on occasion the critical confrontation of these two ‘sources’” (Schillebeeckx 1981b: 50-51). An important aspect of Schillebeeckx’s method is a careful analysis of our present situation, especially experiences of suffering, of wars, of poverty—that is, experiences of meaninglessness . In summary, Schillebeeckx’s method...