Lamentations and literary ethics: A new perspective on biblical interpretation.

Biblical interpreters face the specter of assessing and choosing from among many interpretive approaches (historical-critical, dogmatic-theological, aesthetic-literary). Interpreters need to choose an approach, to resolve the contentious opposition between various approaches, and to relate biblical interpretation to the interpreter's life. These issues, which involve literature and life, converge in the domain of ethics. We investigate the possibility of a new perspective on biblical interpretation, which enables interpreters to: (1) incorporate interpretive interests (values and ideologies) in the interpretive process; (2) take responsibility for interpretive choices; (3) live responsibly in response to readings and interpretations of the Bible. The book of Lamentations raises many interpretive issues related to these aims. Therefore, we review the history of the interpretation of Lamentations (eighteenth through twentieth centuries), focusing on contributions made by scholars from Britain (Lowth, Cheyne, Provan), Germany (Eichhorn, Keil, Budde, Wiesmann, Kraus), and North America (Gottwald, Hillers, Kaiser). Our investigation of literary theories reveals that literary ethics provides a new perspective on biblical interpretation. We sketch the development, definition, and issues addressed in literary ethics, from Plato and Aristotle to the present. Based on the thought of Booth, Siebers, and J. Hillis Miller, we reformulate literary ethics for biblical interpreters. Three concepts are highlighted: (1) the dynamic process of re-presentation (mimesis); (2) the association between ethics and context; (3) the relation of interpretation to ideology and authority. Most significant to this reformulation of literary ethics is the thought of Gadamer, Ricoeur, Jeanrond, Fowl and Jones, and Schweiker. Finally, we discuss the implications of this reformulated perspective of literary ethics for the interpretation of Lamentations. Literary ethics provides an orientation to the interpretive choices of biblical interpreters. It allows interpreters to incorporate their values and interpretive interests in the hermeneutical process. It encourages the integration of several hermeneutical approaches, the process and results of which are influenced by the literary ethics of the reader and his/her primary social community. It leads to responsible interpretation and to living in response to the Bible.PhDBiblical studiesPhilosophyPhilosophy, Religion and TheologyTheologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/129062/2/9319527.pd