There are at least two compelling reasons why any attempt to bring the theological resources of the Lutheran Confessions into dialogue with the contemporary theological milieu should address the area of biblical hermeneutics. The first depends upon the well-established fact that the Lutheran Confessions understand themselves as deriving their identity from biblical exegesis: "We are certain of our Christian confession and faith on the basis of the divine, prophetic, and apostolic Scripture and have been adequately assured of this in our hearts and Christian consciences through the grace of the Holy Spirit." (1) Like Luther, the confessional authors were less concerned with constructing systematic delineations of theological topics and more interested in explicating the mystery-laden yet comprehensive "logic" of the biblical texts. Any contemporary evaluation of the theological vitality of the Lutheran Confessions falls squarely within the realm of hermeneutical assessment. Put directly, one can even say that the authentic Lutheran way to judge whether the theology of the Confessions remains valuable for the contemporary age is to determine the tenability of the exegetical framework that the Book of Concord (BC) brings to bear upon the Bible. Second, and perhaps even more important, the mid-twentieth century and onward has witnessed an exponential growth in studies seeking to develop overtly theological methods for biblical interpretation. The most remarkable feature of this interest in the relationship between biblical exegesis and constructive theology has been the confluence of input from both professional Bible scholars and theologians. One schema for charting the latter group begins in the early twentieth century with Karl Barth's revised commentary on The Epistle to the Romans (2) and traces its influence through the "postliberal" appropriation of Barthian hermeneutics as well as those theologians operating in conscious opposition to postliberal methods. Barth's influence has been apparent also among Bible scholars interested in the renewal of explicitly biblical theologies, most notably in the development of "canonical" criticism by Brevard S. Childs (3) but also in the prolific output of Walter Brueggemann (4) and Rolf Rendtorff. (5) Meanwhile, other thinkers, most notably James Barr, have sought to counter the characteristically Barthian disregard for historical-critical inquiry into the Bible by producing texts on interpretive method in which the rich potential of such criticism for aiding constructive theology is defended. (6) Both exegesis and theology draw heavily upon a third source of insight into textual interpretation, namely, the reinvigorated philosophical inquiry into hermeneutical methods that originates in the work of Friedrich Schleiermacher and Wilhelm Dilthey and culminates in such thinkers as Jurgen Habermas, Hans Georg Gadamer, Paul Ricoeur, and Jacques Derrida.
