Theological imagination as hermeneutical device : exploring the hermeneutical contribution of an imaginal engagement with the text
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Date
Authors
Viljoen, Anneke
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
OpenJournals Publishing
Abstract
In the past, biblical scholarship has neglected the hermeneutical contribution that an imaginal
engagement with the text may make. The author’s aim in this article was to develop theological
imagination as a hermeneutical device. This was done by briefly considering the concurrence
in the hermeneutic contributions of three interpreters of biblical texts, with specific regard to
their understanding of biblical imagination. These were Walter Brueggemann, Paul Ricoeur
and Ignatius of Loyola. Their hermeneutical contributions concur in their understanding of a
biblically informed imagination, and it is specifically this aspect of the concurrence of their
thought that was explored. An illustration from Proverbs 14:27, which draws on the metaphor
and biblical motif of the fountain or source of life, was put forward to demonstrate how the
concurrence in the contributions of these biblical interpreters may influence an imaginal
engagement with the text.
Description
Keywords
Biblical scholarship, Hermeneutical contribution, Biblical imagination, Proverbs 14:27, Theological imagination, Imaginal engagement, Theological methodology
Sustainable Development Goals
Citation
Viljoen A., 2016, ‘Theological
imagination as hermeneutical
device: Exploring the
hermeneutical contribution
of an imaginal engagement
with the text’, HTS Teologiese
Studies/Theological Studies
72(4), a3172. http://dx.DOI.
org/ 10.4102/hts.v72i4.3172.