Interpreting the Bible & the Constitution

Name: Interpreting the Bible & the Constitution
Brand: Yale University Press
SKU: 2674X
Price: 91.25 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Jaroslav Pelikan
ISBN: 9780300102673

By: Jaroslav Pelikan

Yale University Press / 2004 / Hardcover

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Product Description

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The Bible and the Constitution have the status of the "Great Code" and each of these texts is controversial in that their interpretation is used to judge situations that their authors could not have known or foreseen on their own.

Pelikan compares how the Bible and the Constitution have approached interpretation as well as searches for answers to what makes something "constitutional" or "biblical". And in spite of obvious differences, both the Bible and the Constitution require close word-by-word exegesis, an awareness of opinions that have gone before, and a willingness to ask new questions of old codes.

Jaroslav Pelikan was Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University. He served as the first John W. Kluge Scholar at the Library of Congress. A world authority on the Christian tradition, he was a highly sought lecturer, the author of nearly forty books, and the editor of scores of others. Pelikan was Co-Winner of the 2004 John W. Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Product Information

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Title: Interpreting the Bible & the Constitution
By: Jaroslav Pelikan
Format: Hardcover
Number of Pages: 272
Vendor: Yale University Press

Dimensions: 8.50 X 5.75 X .75 (inches)
Weight: 14 ounces
ISBN: 0300102674
ISBN-13: 9780300102673
Stock No: WW2674X

Publisher's Description

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Both the Bible and the Constitution have the status of “Great Code,” but each of these important texts is controversial as well as enigmatic. They are asked to speak to situations that their authors could not have anticipated on their own. In this book, one of our greatest religious historians brings his vast knowledge of the history of biblical interpretation to bear on the question of constitutional interpretation.

Jaroslav Pelikan compares the methods by which the official interpreters of the Bible and the Constitution—the Christian Church and the Supreme Court, respectively—have approached the necessity of interpreting, and reinterpreting, their important texts. In spite of obvious differences, both texts require close, word-by-word exegesis, an awareness of opinions that have gone before, and a willingness to ask new questions of old codes, Pelikan observes. He probes for answers to the question of what makes something authentically “constitutional” or “biblical,” and he demonstrates how an understanding of either biblical interpretation or constitutional interpretation can illuminate the other in important ways.

Editorial Reviews

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“. . .a characteristically brilliant and original conceptual overview, one that generations of scholars will need to read—and interpret.”—Christopher Levenick, Claremont Review of Books

-- Claremont Review of Books