The Reformation of the Literal - (T&t Clark Studies in Historical Theology) by Erik Lundeen (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Recent debates on Protestant Reformers have focused on whether they were stridently literal or allegorical interpreters. However, in this nuanced book, Ludeen argues that the question of what in fact constituted the Bible's literal sense was also a key question in early modern debates. There is no clean binary of literal versus allegorical; instead, reformers subtly produced a variety of competing literalisms. There was not one literal sense in the Reformation, but many"--

Book Synopsis

What does it mean to read the Bible 'literally'? Recent debates on the Protestant reformers have focused on whether they were stridently literal interpreters or maintained a place for allegorical readings. However, in this nuanced book, Lundeen argues that the question of what in fact constituted the Bible's literal sense was also a key question in early modern debates.

There is no clean binary of literal versus allegorical; instead, reformers subtly produced a variety of competing literalisms. There was not one literal sense in the Reformation, but many.

To make this case, Lundeen comparatively analyzes Reformation-era commentaries on the prophet Isaiah. He further highlights the little-known but influential works of the Basel reformer Johannes Oecolampadius, who was the first Christian to publish commentaries on most of the biblical prophets in the sixteenth century.

By placing Oecolampadius in conversation with a host of his better-known Christian and Jewish predecessors and contemporaries, this book reframes a central aspect of Reformation-era biblical exegesis, while also providing a constructive resource for those who seek to read the Bible's ancient prophets as Christian scripture today.

Review Quotes

"Erik Lundeen's magisterial study of the way the Protestant Reformers read Old Testament prophecy brings both clarity and order to what might otherwise resemble a Babel-like confusion of sixteenth-century opinions as to what counts as literal interpretation. The Reformation of the Literal accomplishes something the Reformers themselves could not: it makes explicit the implicit assumptions about meaning and interpretation that they, and we, inevitably bring to the all-important task of reading the Bible as the church's authoritative Scripture." --Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, USA

"Erik Lundeen has written a masterful study of early Protestant interpretations of Old Testament prophecy. Complicating the view that the reformers accepted only the literal sense of Scripture, he highlights the difficulty of defining "literal." With Johannes Oecolampadius's commentary on Isaiah at the center of his analysis, he draws attention to the influence of Erasmian biblical humanism and shows how the reformers interacted with patristic, medieval, and Jewish exegetical traditions and with each other. This is a major contribution to our understanding of the history of exegesis that addresses important questions about allegory, typology, and what it means to interpret prophetic texts literally." --Amy Nelson Burnett, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA

"This is an extraordinary work of scholarship. Erik Lundeen asks what it meant for the Protestant reformers to read the Bible literally, as they claimed to do. The result is a groundbreaking and wide-ranging examination of early modern biblical culture. The literal meaning of the Bible was far from straightforward and the reformers took different routes in their search for clarity. Lundeen reveals the diversity of Protestant scriptural interpretation and transforms our understanding of the fraught world of the Reformation Bible." --Bruce Gordon, Yale University, USA

About the Author

Erik Lundeen is a pastor and church planter in Milwaukee, WI. He holds a PhD in the history of Christianity from Baylor University, USA, and an M.A. and M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, USA.