Divine Discourse Philosophical Reflections on the Claim that God Speaks [Paperback]

A leading philosopher of religion reflects on one of the central problems of Christian theology.The canonical texts and traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam claim that God speaks, but philosophers usually mistakenly treat such speech as revelation. This study develops an innovative means of interpreting the claim based on contemporary speech-action theory.The canonical texts and traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam claim that God speaks, but philosophers usually mistakenly treat such speech as revelation. This study develops an innovative means of interpreting the claim based on contemporary speech-action theory.The canonical texts and traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam claim that God speaks, but philosophers usually mistakenly treat such speech as revelation. Wolterstorff argues that contemporary speech-action theory offers a fascinating approach to the claim. He develops an innovative theory of interpretation along the way opposing the current near-consensus of Ricoeur and Derrida that there is something wrong-headed about interpreting a text to find out what its author said.Preface; 1. Locating our topic; 2. Speaking is not revealing; 3. The many modes of discourse; 4. Divine discourse in the hands of theologians; 5. What it is to speak; 6. Could God have and acquire the rights and duties of a speaker?; 7. Can God cause the events generative of discourse?; 8. In defense of authorial-discourse interpretation: contra Ricoeur; 9. In defense of authorial-discourse interpretation: contra Derrida; 10. Performance interpretation; 11. Interpreting the mediating human discourse: the first hermeneutic; 12. Interpreting for the mediated divine discourse: the second hermeneutic; 13. Has Scripture become a wax nose?; 14. The illocutionary stance of Biblical narrative; 15. Are we entitled?; 16. Historical and theological afterword; Endnotes; Index. ...Wolterstorff makes an important contribution to biblical hermeneutics. His work should cause all£.