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Title: Exegetical Fallacies by D. A. Carson ISBN: 0-8010-2086-7 Publisher: Baker Book House Pub. Date: May, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.38 (24 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Good intro to exegesis
Comment: Carson designed this work to be a textbook for seminarians and to serve as an introduction for budding exegetes. Anyone with a basic knowledge of the Bible and the biblical languages has probably found himself wincing on Sunday morning as a deacon or Sunday School teacher, or even the pastor, takes a verse out of context or mangles the original intent of the author. Such mistakes are simply inexcusable, for teachers of the Word ought to take utmost care in handling the text. Souls are in the balance. Carson's Exegetical Fallacies, though only 150 pages long, fires a powerful volley in the battle against exegetical imprecision.
Carson covers word-study fallacies, grammatical fallacies, logical fallacies, and presuppositional fallacies, giving examples of each and demonstrating the errors of each.
This book serves its purpose well and is excellent for both trained ministers and laymen. Read it and you will never listen to a sermon in the same way again.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Wonderful Addition to the Tool Box
Comment: This is one fine little all-purpose addition to the pastor, teacher, student or lay-minister's exegetical tool kit. D.A. Carson holds back on no one-including himself! He even points out some fallacies from his own teachings in the past which have been corrected by, can you believe it...his grad students! That alone impressed me, that a scholar of Carson's reputation could admit that he too, has made exegetical errors. He says that we all must be aware of our tendencies towards logical fallacies, misuse of the Biblical languages, blurring context, bringing presuppositions to the passage, etc.
D.A. Carson tears down many sacred cows...pet topics of preachers that I have heard all my life and (ouch) even preached a few! But forewarned is forearmed. This book will make you aware, and cause you not to be paranoid and skeptical, but to use good technique and research in preparation. It's one more step that God gives us in rightly dividing His Word. _Exegetical Fallacies_ is a great tool, and I believe it has enriched my preaching and teaching. I highly recommend it anyone who's ready to study the Word, from the seminary prof to the Sunday School teacher.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Sure Guide for Clear-Headedness
Comment: This book is a must read for any Christian preacher, teacher, or student. At this book's heart is the necessity of correctly handling the Word of God. Scripture declares that those who become teachers have a greater judgment (James 3:1). In other words, those who seek to handle the Word of God must do so carefully and correctly. Carson writes, "we cannot lightly accept ... laxity in the interpretation of Scripture. We are dealing with God's thoughts: we are obligated to take the greatest pains to understand them truly and to explain them clearly" (p. 15). This book calls us to careful, clear, and correct preaching and teaching of God's most holy Word.
Carson begins by looking at various "word-study fallacies." With words we preach, teach, communicate, and oftentimes confuse, mislead, and destroy. How we use words matters. One of the most common word-study fallacies is what Carson calls "semantic anachronism." This occurs when one takes a modern day use of a word and reads it back into earlier literature. How many preachers have read the meaning of the English word dynamite back into the Greek word dynamis? Such word-study fallacies are all too common in preaching.
Carson continues by examining various "grammatical fallacies." This involves such problems as the ever-abused Aorist tense in biblical Greek. The Aorist refers to an undefined event, which is often misconstrued to refer to an exact moment of time in the past. The meaning and usage of the word must be determined by its usage within the context not through preset categories. As a side note, this chapter is the most Greek intensive. One could follow Carson's thought but much of it would not be extremely helpful unless one knew Greek.
The third chapter looks at common "logical fallacies." He begins by arguing for the universality of logic (something which is hotly disputed today) and then proceeds to list various logical fallacies. While this list is helpful it remains incomplete. For an excellent guide to logical fallacies one should reference S. Morris Engel's "With Good Reason: An Introduction to Informal Fallacies." Throughout this chapter (and all chapters) Carson offers examples from Christian scholarship, which both violate and uphold the rules of logic. The poem "Why Are Fire Engines Red?" is worth the price of the book.
Next, Carson highlights various "presuppositional and historical fallacies." Everyone has baggage (both good and bad) when they approach the Biblical text. These are our presuppositions, which are unavoidable - everyone has them and can't get rid of them. The best thing to do is to recognize one's presuppositions and see how they color one's reading of Scripture. Carson argues that we must seek to distance ourselves from our recognized presuppositions in order to approach the biblical text afresh (a difficult task!). It is just as much a fallacy to read our theology into the text, as it is to assume that we are neutral. Carson also lists a few historical fallacies which expositors who handle a historical text (i.e. the Bible) may be prone to commit.
Carson concludes by listing a few more potential abuses of Scripture. In both the introduction and the concluding paragraphs Carson warns his readers against the pride of knowing and being able to point out fallacies. It is not a tool toward pride, but a guide for humility. He concludes by suggesting our newfound understanding of fallacies to be seasoned with a little self-doubt. We must be able to recognize fallacies others commit but in doing so we must not fail to realize that we may just as easily be committing them unaware. Therefore as expositors of God's Word we must humbly seek to carefully and correctly handle that word.
This is an excellent book and an enjoyable read. At a little over 140 pages this book will be a quick read and will serve as an invaluable reference for life. Scripture encourages us to be as Bereans testing what we hear from others by the Word of God (Acts 17:11). To this end Carson's work offers us one more help in testing what we hear and discerning the true meaning of the Word of God. May we seek to love God with our minds as we carefully and correctly handle his holy Word.
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Title: New Testament Exegesis: A Handbook for Students and Pastors by Gordon D. Fee ISBN: 0664223168 Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press Pub. Date: July, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: The Hermeneutical Spiral: A Comprehensive Introduction to Biblical Interpretation by Grant R. Osborne ISBN: 0830812881 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: May, 1997 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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Title: Cracking Old Testament Codes: A Guide to Interpreting Old Testament Literary Forms by D. Brent Sandy, Ronald L. Giese ISBN: 0805410937 Publisher: Broadman & Holman Publishers Pub. Date: August, 1995 List Price(USD): $29.99 |
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Title: How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth by Gordon D. Fee, Douglas Stuart ISBN: 0310384915 Publisher: Zondervan Pub. Date: 08 May, 1993 List Price(USD): $14.99 |
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Title: Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics, An by Walter C. Kaiser, Moises Silva ISBN: 0310530903 Publisher: Zondervan Pub. Date: 28 April, 1994 List Price(USD): $26.99 |
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