Engaging with Wirkungsgeschichte: Romans 13:1-7 as a Case Study

Authors

  • Arnold T. Monera Ph.D. - S.T.D.

Abstract

An interesting and stimulating development in biblical studies is a method called Wirkungsgeschichte1 – a German compound term difficult to pronounce, difficult to spell and nearly impossible to translate. This term was originally coined by Hans-Georg Gadamer in his philosophical work Wahrheit und Methode (Truth and Method) published in 1960.2 This new discipline which has won gradual recognition aims at reading a text while being conscious of the different ways in which it has been interpreted in the course of time. It is a technique of analyzing the history of a text’s influences and effects. It examines the way the Bible had been interpreted in different historical eras under the influence of the concerns readers have brought to the text. In the English world, Wirkungsgeschichte has been rendered by at least three names: “Reception History”,
“history of influence” or “history of effects.” All these names attempt to describe the sum total of varied interpretations and appropriations of a text which have been made through history. The Pontifical Biblical Commission’s document The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church (1993) translates Wirkungsgeschichte into English as “history of the influence of the text” and considers it as one of the approaches based on tradition, alongside Canonical approach and recourse to Jewish traditions of interpretation.

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Issue

Vol. 8 No. 2 (2007): July - December 2007

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Articles

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