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In Hermeneutics and the Church, James A. Andrews presents a close reading of De doctrina christiana as a whole and places Augustine's text into dialogue with contemporary theological hermeneutics. The dialogical nature of the exercise allows Augustine to remain a living voice in contemporary debates about the use of theology in biblical interpretation. In particular, Andrews puts Augustine's hermeneutical treatise into dialogue with the theologians Werner Jeanrond and Stephen Fowl.
Andrews argues on the basis of De doctrina christiana that the paradigm for theological interpretation is the sermon and that its end is to engender the double love of God and neighbor. With the sermon as the paradigm of interpretation, Hermeneutics and the Church offers practical conclusions for future work in historical theology and biblical interpretation. For Augustine scholars, Andrews offers a reading of De doctrina that takes seriously the entirety of the work and allows Augustine to speak consistently through words written at the beginning and end of his bishopric. For theologians, this book provides a model of how to engage theologically with the past, and, more than that, it offers the actual fruits of such an engagement: suggestions for the discipline of theological hermeneutics and the practice of scriptural interpretation.
"This book is a creative piece of work. James A. Andrews establishes the sermon as the essential paradigm with which to read and better grasp Augustine’s hermeneutical approach, which oscillates between understanding a text and delivering what one has understood. This book will prove fruitful for a modern appropriation of Augustine’s powerful hermeneutical ideas, which continue to have considerable impact in theology and other disciplines." —Karla Pollmann, University of St. Andrews
James A. Andrews is research associate in the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge.