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The End of Interpretation: Reclaiming the Priority of Ecclesial Exegesis
R. R. Reno
Lexington (2021). 210 pp.
This book is a brief but diverse foray into the theological interpretation of Scripture (TIS) by one of its leading proponents. R.R. Reno, currently the editor at First Things, has here drawn together and revised a number of his own papers and essays, most of which were previously published elsewhere. Compiled immediately after the discontinuation of the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible, for which Reno served as the general editor, the present work contains some of Reno’s mature reflections both on that series and on theological interpretation in general.
For Reno, TIS is more a sensibility than a method. It is not a replacement for non-theological modes of reading such as historical criticism, and Reno objects only when these non-theological readings claim a “final interpretive authority” for their results (p. 26). TIS, instead, occurs simply when interpreters read the Bible doctrinally and attempt to discern how church teaching accords with Scripture. To this end, he argues throughout for “the imperative of accordance” (p. xv). Accordance, for Reno, is the belief that what the Bible teaches and what the church proclaims are, in substance, one and the same. Reno views accordance as a “presumption” (p. 7) which one brings to the task of interpretation, and one held in common by Protestants and Catholics. It is further a presumption which is exegetically fruitful as it drives the interpreter deeper into the text of Scripture itself, rather than taking the at times easier approach of seeing a contradiction between Scripture and church teaching.
Reno argues for accordance in the first two chapters, before then offering both historical and exegetical case studies. Chapter 3 discusses Origen’s spiritual reading and offers an extended reflection upon a single comment in which Origen makes an etymological interpretation of “Ramesse” in Exod 12:37 to mean “the commotion of a moth.” Through scriptural collation with other examples of moths, Origen argues that Exod 12:37 spiritually makes the call to follow Christ. This interpretation gives Reno occasion to reflect on the relationship between Scripture’s literal and spiritual senses and to argue for the necessity of spiritual reading. Chapter 4 likewise offers a historical vignette, surveying Reformation readings of James. Here Reno demonstrates how the reformers’ belief in justification sola fide, when brought into tension with James’s statement that a person is justified “not by faith alone” (Jas 2:24), led to deeper exegetical reflection, rather than a simple assumption of contradiction between the Bible and Protestant doctrine.
Chapters 5–7 turn more directly to exegesis. In chapter 5 Reno demonstrates how a doctrinal commitment to creation ex nihilo leads to the necessity of extended reflection upon the meaning of Gen 1:1–2, deeper reflection than would be had if one used only historical-critical methods. The next chapter discusses Jesus’s farewell discourse in John and reflects on the relationship between Christian unity and the doctrine of the atonement. Reno takes aim at the modern ecumenical movement’s use of John 17:21 (“that they all may be one”) and attempts to offer a fuller reading of this verse. Chapter 8 then reads the social hierarchy implied in 1 Corinthians in conversation with the medieval allegory Piers Plowman. Reno argues that Piers Plowman, in its depiction of various social strata, provides a fruitful entryway into understanding Paul’s “political vision of hierarchy” (p. 151) in 1 Corinthians. The work’s final chapter offers explicit reflections on the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible, as well as on the postliberal approach often associated with the “Yale School” and scholars such as George Lindbeck and Hans Frei.
The End of Interpretation is wide ranging and tied together primarily by the theme of accordance. As a reader, however, it was unclear to me when, if ever, in Reno’s understanding, Scripture is allowed to contradict or challenge church teaching. For a Roman Catholic such as Reno, a strong belief in accordance makes sense. What made less sense to me, particularly as a Reformation historian, was Reno’s argument that the reformers did not differ materially from their Roman Catholic counterparts on the idea of accordance. Reno’s chapter on Origen’s spiritual reading also seemed to overreach. Rather than more modestly arguing for the fruitfulness of spiritual reading, Reno defends every particularity of Origen’s interpretation of Exod 12:37 as legitimate instances of seeing divinely intended meaning. This prevents him from ever addressing questions such as the limits of collating different verses of Scripture or the legitimacy of Origen’s etymologies. Instead, he boldly—and to my mind, unnecessarily—concludes, “If we mistrust what Origen sees, then in all likelihood it’s because we’re not confident that God exists” (p. 75). Equating distrust of a particular instance of Origen’s exegesis with atheism, it seems to me, is less than helpful.
As might be surmised, Reno has a flare for strong arguments. While this will be unlikely to convince the skeptical, for those already sold on some form of TIS, Reno’s work does showcase a particular type of TIS in practice. Chapters 1, 2, and 8 are the most programmatic, while the rest of the chapters can be read more or less on their own. Pastors and readers will need some prior acquaintance with TIS in order to understand Reno’s work, but otherwise it is a clearly written and argued book.
Erik Lundeen is the Adult Discipleship Pastor at Village Church of Gurnee in Gurnee, IL. He holds a PhD in Religion from Baylor University and is a member of the St. Hildegard Fellowship of the Center for Pastor Theologians.
