The order of Christian theology : literal and ecclesial senses of the New Testament

Abstract

This article aims to clarify, from perspective of New Testament interpretation, (1) what it is one develops in theological interpretation of the New Testament, or literal senses of the New Testament; and (2) what it is that results from this theological work, or ecclesial senses of the New Testament. According to such a schema, theological interpretation of the New Testament is analogous to Christian allegorical interpretation of the Old. Both involve a retrospective reinterpretation of scriptural traditions informed by newly determinative realities of the present. The remaining question is how a distinction between literal and ecclesial senses of the New Testament addresses the relation of scripture and dogma. Given certain facts of the canonical formation of the New Testament, this question is as much historical as it is theological because, historically and theologically, the New Testament canon and its theological interpretation are intertwined and mutually determinative.