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 Hardcover (June, 1998)

Book Description:

Unparalled in its poetry, richness, and religious and historical significance, the Hebrew Bible has been the site and center of countless commentaries, perhaps none as unique as Thinking Biblically. This remarkable collaboration sets the words of a distinguished biblical scholar, Andre LaCocque, and those of a leading philosopher, Paul Ricoeur, in dialog around six crucial passages from the Old Testament: the story of Adam and Eve, the commandment "thou shalt not kill," the valley of dry bones passage from Ezekiel, Psalm 22, the Song of Songs, and the naming of God in Exodus 3:14. Commenting on these texts, LaCocque and Ricoeur provide a wealth of new insights into the meaning of the different genres of the Old Testament as they made their way into and were transformed by the New Testament. LaCocque's commentaries employ a historical-critical method that takes into account archaeological, philological, and historical research. LaCocque expands this method to include the dynamic tradition of reading scripture, opening his exegesis to developments and enrichments subsequent to the production of the original literary text. Ricoeur also takes into account the relation between the texts and the historical communities that read and interpreted them, but he broadens his scope to include philosophical speculation. His commentaries highlight the metaphorical structure of the passages and how they have served as catalysts for philosophical thinking from the Greeks to the modern age. This extraordinary literary and historical venture reads the Bible through two different, but complementary lenses, revealing the familiar texts as vibrant, philosophically consequential, and unceasingly absorbing.

Synopsis:
This study discusses six crucial passages from the Old Testament, offering a commentary and new insights into their meaning. Employing a historical-critical method, the text takes account of archaeological, philological and historical research. This method is expanded to include the dynamic tradition of reading Scripture, including developments subsequent to the production of the original literary text. Also taken into account is the relation between the texts and the historical communities who read more

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Editorial Reviews
Ingram

The thought of Paul Ricoeur continues its profound effect on theology, religious studies and biblical interpretation. The 28 papers contained in this volume constitute the most comprehensive overview of Ricoeur's writings in religion since 1970. Ricoeur's hermeneutical orientation and his sensitivity to the mystery of religious language offer fresh insight to the transformative potential of sacred literature, including the Bible.

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Paperback (September, 1994)

From Publishers Weekly

Probing to the heart of selfhood, Ricoeur finds otherness. In this eminent thinker's theory of personhood, the self is a character-narrator of its own history, its autonomy intimately bound up with solicitude for one's neighbors and with justice for each individual. Professor emeritus at theUniversity ofChicago, Ricoeur reads life histories as literary narratives and attempts to show how practical wisdom should flow from our intuitive moral judgments of what the good life might be like. His ethics of reciprocity and caring draws freely on the whole of Western philosophy, from Plato, Aristotle and Greek tragedy to Heidegger, language theory and John Rawls. An exciting work for specialists and advanced students, this dense, difficult treatise, which cuts across philosophy, semantics, literary theory and social science, will daunt the general reader.

From Library Journal

The central theme here is the concept of personal identity, within which Ricoeur examines three major issues: the idea of self, of identity or sameness, and of relation to that which is not self. His intention is no less than a hermeneutics of the self, and toward this end he accomplishes much. This is not reading for the philosophical novice, but those familiar with Ricoeur's writings, or those who have a thorough understanding of the concepts employed here, will find this a rich and rewarding book. Based on Ricoeur's 1986 Gifford Lectures, this is recommended for academic libraries with comprehensive programs in philosophy.

4-Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences:
 Essays on Language, Action and Interpretation
Paul Ricoeur (Author),John B. Thompson (Editor)

Book Description

This is a collection in translation of essays by Paul Ricoeur which presents a comprehensive view of his philosophical hermeneutics, its relation to the views of his predecessors in the tradition and its consequences for the social sciences. The volume has three parts. The studies in the first part examine the history of hermeneutics, its central themes and the outstanding issues it has to confront. In Part II, Ricoeur's own current, constructive position is developed. A concept of the text is formulated as the implications of the theory are pursued into the domains of sociology, psychoanalysis and history. Many of the essays appear here in English for the first time; the editor's introduction brings out their background in Ricoeur's thought and the continuity of his concerns. The volume will be of great importance for those interested in hermeneutics and Ricoeur's contribution to it, and will demonstrate how much his approach offers to a number of disciplines.