The Domain of the Word: Scripture and Theological Reason

by John B. Webster

The book brings together a set of related studies on the nature of Scripture and of Christian theology by one of the most prominent representatives of Protestant theology of our time. After a brief introduction on the setting of the book and its major themes, the first part of the volume examines topics on the nature and interpretation of Scripture. A comprehensive proposal about Scripture and its interpretation is followed by a study of Scripture as the embassy of the risen Christ, and by three related chapters analyzing the ways in which widely different major modern theologians (Barth, T.F. Torrance and Rowan Williams) have understood the nature and interpretation of the Bible.
The second part of the volume makes a cumulative proposal about the nature and tasks of Christian theology, examining the fundamental principles of systematic theology, the distinctive role and scope of reason in Christian theology, the relation of theology to the humanities, and the vocation of theology to promote the peace of the church.

Genres: Theology, Christian, Scripture

240 pages, Paperback

First published June 28, 2012

About the author

Professor John B. Webster, MA, PhD, DD, FRSE was a notable contemporary British theologian of the Anglican communion writing in the area of systematic, historical and moral theology. He was educated at the independent co-educational Bradford Grammar School and at the University of Cambridge.

See also: John Webster

Image: Drawn by Rachel Nigh

Reviews

[Samuel G. Parkison · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great collection of essays. Webster reminds me of C.S. Lewis in the sense that he included what he believed about everything in anything he wrote. Whatever the topic is, you can be sure Webster will start with the doctrine of God proper, and tease out how God's Triune simplicity in himself is the foundation for rightly understanding whatever topic is in question. That, it seems to me, is Webster's greatest contribution: a brilliant case-study in theological methodology.

It's hard to see the downside of his approach when you consider the explanatory power of relating different areas of interest. In this volume alone, for example, Webster demonstrates how this approach allows one to seamlessly explore dogmatics, hermeneutics, ecclesiology, reason, and even the humanities, without changing the subject.

[Aidan Sims · Rating 5 out of 5]

Webster has blown me away. One of the most doxological and profound works I’ve read. Highly recommend.

[Taylor Rollo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful, contemporary theology of Scripture, inspiration, and hermeneutics. Much of what he says will not be surprising to someone who has learned and assents to the orthodox, Reformed understanding of Scripture, but he explains it in a way that addresses modern and post-modern academia's theological errors, which is really helpful.

[curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with all Webster's work, this is challenging, provocative, and deeply edifying. Webster's worshipful awe of the Triune God compels him to a deep and carefully but joyfully considered treatment of the doctrine of Scripture, the nature of human reason, and the pursuit of theology.

[Scott Bielinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb.

[Nathaniel Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkably rich and edifying collection.

[Trey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Webster. Over the last 5 years, I've read his essays often. They aren't always easy reading but they are rich.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stuff. "Holy Scripture is the prophetic and apostolic sign of divine revelation, that is, of God's benevolence in granting rational creatures a share in the supreme wisdom proper to him alone; Christian theology is reason's recognition, contemplation and articulation of this divine wisdom ministered to us by these servants.' p. x

Webster takes up, in this series of essays, the problem for scripture interpretation when analysis breaks free from the subordinate role it had played within an ontological scheme. He makes the point that 'the nature of canonical texts of Christian faith, and of the acts by which those texts are made objects of intelligence, are to be understood not simply ex ipsius historia [out of its own history], but by reference to that by which they have come to be and are maintained, and which by their existence and activity they signify: the divine teacher and his teaching.' p. viii

Often biblical interpreters, through inattention to the theological nature of scripture, create a vacuum filled by some kind of naturalism. While Webster notes that interpretation of the bible is a human cultural activity, the naturalized mode of interpretation deployed in biblical studies often is accompanied by 'a kind of nominalism,' in which human signs were segregated from the divine economy of revelation, as, once again, elements without principles' or analysis without theological ontology. p. ix.