So I guess I am just getting easy to please these days. On the recommendation of 2 men I have come to greatly
appreciate their ministry in my life, I interrupted my reading list and started the
book Deep Exegesis by Peter Leithart. I was first
told about this book by Dr. Pennington in my Sermon on the Mount class. Apparently, that book caught like a wildfire
up at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (I can’t bring myself to insert the
definite article “The”). I remember
writing out the book info for later reference, but I never did anything with
it. Then I moved to Honduras and came
under the teaching ministry of my new pastor, Stephen Jenks (working on his
dissertation for a PhD from Marquette University; keep at it Stephen!). He had the book in his library (which he graciously
opened to me on occasion) and told me to read it. I broke down, and am I ever glad I did!
Leithart is a literary renaissance man. He is the kind of person that knows something
(maybe the more accurate terms is “many things”) in nearly every field and
area. His approach to the text of
Scripture is not overly innovative, although he demonstrates a much-needed
practice for exegetes – creatively reading the text. John 9 is the test case that he uses
throughout his book. What I appreciate
most about his use of John 9 is that be basically interprets it just as one
would interpret OT literature (assuming one knows how to properly interpret OT
literature). He sees allusions that
build a biblical theology of new creation.
He utilizes intertextuality, and even better, he demonstrates an
intratextual approach to John. He
emphasizes not just a christocentric reading but a totus christus
reading where the text deals with both Jesus, as the head of the church, and his body as well. He is doing things in the
NT that many OT scholars have been doing for years… an integrated reading of
the text.
I will warn that those who are thoroughly entrenched in the
world of modernity and objectivity will have a hard time with this book (yes,
there is a large fundamentalist segment that would be under this
classification). He gives his nods
toward pre and postmodern interpretive concepts. I’ve come to appreciate a pre-critical
hermeneutic all the more these days on my theological journey. Leithart, in just over 200 pages, has opened
the world to consider the text in multiple ways, all of which are extremely
enriching and will have lasting effects on the reader of Scripture. I highly recommend this book with 2 hardy
thumbs up.
PS—I usually knock a book for using endnotes rather than
footnotes. However, the book arranges
the endnotes with page numbers above to help the reader find them much more
quickly. That saved me a great deal of
time, since I didn’t have to remember what chapter I was in, find that chapter
in the back of the book, then find the note I need. I could just go to the back of the book and
find note #17 from page 127 labeled in the endnotes as “Notes to pp. 110-127.” So much easier‼!
