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November 24, 2011 by Gerald Hiestand
William Webb on Hermeneutics
I’ve been writing an essay on premarital sexual ethics, and have been interacting with William Webb’s book, Slaves, Women, and Homosexuals. Below is copy from the paper…Webb’s hermeneutic, like Christian Smith’s, is concerned with navigating between the world of the Bible and our own. Key to Webb’s thesis is the idea that we must observe the “movement” of the biblical text as it relates to its host culture. In some cases (e.g., slavery) the Bible represents movement away from the host culture toward a more generous ethic. In other cases (e.g., homosexuality) the Bible moves away from the host culture toward a more restrictive ethic. This “movement” of the Bible in relation to the host culture helps us discern the spirit of the text with a view to application in our contemporary context. When we see the Bible adopting a consistent posture toward the culture on a given topic, we appropriately project and apply this posture in our current context. Webb ultimately concludes in his book that the movement of Scripture as it relates to homosexuality is consistently restrictive, thus we should not attempt to override this movement in our contemporary context. The Bible’s stance on slavery and women, however, suggests the opposite. Webb notes that the Bible consistently adopts a more generous posture than the host culture on both of these issues, and thus the spirit of the Bible is in favor of abolition and egalitarianism.
While I appreciate Webb’s focus on the movement of the biblical text, I find his overall approach unsatisfying. Webb (not unlike Smith) asks us to consider the possibility that Scripture is pointing to an “ultimate ethic” beyond the pages of Scripture. “What we should live out in our modern culture…is not the isolated words of the text, but the redemptive spirit that the text reflects as read against the its original culture…As Christians we should be very careful not to become gridlocked with the isolated words of the text so that we miss reapplying the redemptive spirit that produced the text in the first place” (33). Thus for Webb, in many instances we will need to “move beyond” the teaching of the Bible and develop an ultimate ethic that captures the “spirit” of the original text. He feels this needs to happen for both slaves and women.
Webb is to be commended for grappling with the difficult reality that the Bible’s ethic (particularly as it relates to the Torah’s statements about women, slavery, war, etc.) often seems less judicious than that of contemporary society. But Webb’s methodology of moving beyond the text is ultimately unnecessary as a means of redressing the Bible’s more difficult aspects. Webb does not sufficiently consider how the “intra-canonical” movement of the Bible (explicated in well-formed biblical theology) can provide an “ultimate” ethic without moving beyond the pages of Scripture.
For an extended critique along these lines, see Thomas Schreiner, “William J. Webb’s Slaves, Women & Homosexuals: A Review Article,” SBJT 6 (2002): 46-64. Schreiner observes, “[Webb] does not clearly explain the salvation historical character of the scriptures in which the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the climax and fulfillment of all of redemptive history…. many of the cultural examples cited by Webb can be solved rather easily once we have a grasp of redemptive history.” (54). For alternative methodologies that demonstrate sensitivity to the “intra-canonical” movement of Scripture, see Vanhoozer, Drama of Doctrine, and N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress, 1992), 121-44.
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About the SAET Blog
Welcome to the SAET blog. Herein you will find the theological/pastoral ramblings of the Rev. Matthew Mason, the good Doctor Jason Hood, and Pastor Gerald Hiestand. All three write under the premise that theology and the pastorate belong together, and that (at least some) pastors must once again function as writing theologians for the wider church, for the ecclesial renewal of theology and the theological renewal of the church.
Contributors
Gerald Hiestand
Gerald has served as the SAET board president since 2006. He has been in pastoral ministry since 1999, and serves currently as the Senior Associate Pastor of Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park, IL.
Jason Hood
Jason is a graduate of Rhodes College, Reformed Theological Seminary, Highland Theological College and the Univ. of Aberdeen. Jason works as Scholar-in-Residence and director of Christ College Residency Program at Christ UMC. He's trying to figure out the twitter thing, @jasonbhood, and sometimes writes for ChristianityToday.com.
Matthew Mason
Matthew earned an MTh at Oak Hill College, London. He is an Assistant Pastor at Church of the Resurrection, Washington D. C. (Anglican Mission in the Americas), and edits Ecclesia Reformanda, a journal of Reformed theology.
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Recent Comments
Gerald, would you describe this as a “moderate” version of trajectory hermeneutics? I’m a little bit familiar with this approach with regard to the egal/comp debate and also w/r/t homosexuality. I heard an interesting interview with the current leader of the American Episcopal Church on NPR (Katherine Schiori) and in defending gay clergy she kept coming back to the “progressive nature of Scripture and revelation”, or something along those lines. She apparently didn’t agree that homosexuality was as strongly condemned in NT and OT. She also said that there were legitimate reasons why OT Jews could not eat shellfish and other health/dietary restrictions, but that one of the “progressions” we see in Scripture is that advances in culture and science revealed those restrictions to be meaningful in a nomadic tribal culture, but not for us today. Of course, she said that we can extend this line of thinking to other scientific discoveries in the area of anthropology, sexuality and the study of origins.
Although most people in the pews are not familiar with Webb and could not articulate what trajectory hermeneutics, I do think this line of argument is often presented with pretty persuasive effect. I think it is a good idea for us to address it at some level and give people tools and arguments to counteract it.
12/3/11 1:47 PM | Comment Link
Webb’s trajectory hermeneutic is more moderate than what you are describing from Schiori. Webb argues that the “movement” of scripture regarding homosexuality is always restrictive, thus the movement is “static.” The main burden of Webb’s book is to show how one might embrace egalitarianism, without at the same time embracing homosexuality. I’m not sure he’s entirely successful, but that’s his aim.
12/7/11 10:43 AM | Comment Link
This makes sense, Gerald. I was partly wondering if Webb agrees with the concept of trajectory hermeneutics since you didn’t use that terminology in your review. I’m also wondering if you think the concept is useful for us to embrace (obviously in a moderate version, not Schiori’s), or if this is one of those things that becomes a very slippery slope. Again, the reason I ask is that I know that for a lot of Christians, especially younger Christians, the general idea of a trajectory is very persuasive, because we have often heard these carefully scripted soundbites about shellfish and other progressions we see in Scripture.
FWIW, I ask this question not so much because of anything that is specifically going on at Calvary, but because I have extended family members who are pretty standard evangelicals, but have recently embraced the possibility of homosexuality upon the basis of a trajectory hermeneutic. Maybe that will provide some context for my question.
12/8/11 10:18 AM | Comment Link
Derek,
Yes, Webb uses a trajectory hermeneutic. But he shows (pretty convincingly) that there isn’t any trajectory when it comes to homosexuality. The whole of the Bible adopts a uniform and consistently critical approach to homosexuality. Indeed, the trajectory of Scripture when it comes to sexual ethics is to press toward an increasingly restrictive sexual ethic. So a trajectory hermeneutic doesn’t work with homosexuality.
Regarding trajectory hermeneuitics…there are clearly trajectories in the Bible. So I’ve got no problem with that. But where I part company with Webb is that he is willing to find an “ultimate” ethic beyond the ethic of the New Testament. As I read it, the ultimate ethic is the ethic of the New Covenant. In other words, all trajectories in Scripture reach their consummation with the advent of Christ and the dawn of the New Covenant.
Once we are willing to adopt an ethical posture that is “superior” to the ethic of the New Testament, I think we get ourselves into all sorts of difficulties.
12/8/11 10:45 AM | Comment Link
Thanks, Gerald, this is very helpful. And what you said also gives me some insight into Schiori and her cohorts, who see multiple consummation points throughout the church age, e.g. in the Enlightenment and a further one in our own postmodern age. Your quote “In other words, all trajectories in Scripture reach their consummation with the advent of Christ and the dawn of the New Covenant” is particularly helpful in discerning Biblical trajectories from man made ones, I think.
12/8/11 10:54 AM | Comment Link
SAET » Sexuality and Trajectory: A Few Thoughts » The Society for the Advancement of Ecclesial Theology said...
[...] can’t fully engage this argument at the moment, it’s a big hermeneutical issue (see William Webb, discussed here by Hiestand), but here are a few thoughts. Apart from other weaknesses, this approach presupposes that the [...]
04/23/12 4:33 PM | Comment Link