The Key to the Bible: Bonhoeffer's Approach to the Psalms as Theological Interpretation

Abstract

Abstract:Dietrich Bonhoeffer's approach to the Book of Psalms as the hermeneutical key to all of the Bible can help to combine historical and theological readings of the Bible. This article highlights four aspects of Bonhoeffer's approach: (1) by reading the Psalms prayerfully and receptively, persons are drawn into the realm of God's revelation; (2) Christ comes to the reader of the Psalms as the one who is already present, and the reader partakes of Christ's righteousness; (3) because the Psalms are read in new contexts, Christ reshapes these contexts: life becomes open for God; (4) by definition, the Psalms are read in the community of the synagogue and the Church, since no single person has experienced all that the Psalms express. These four aspects together render reading the Psalms, and the Bible as a whole, a theological enterprise, in a hermeneutical situation defined by the living Christ. The situation of interpretation is reversed by a change of subject: God is the one reading, the interpreter is the one being interpreted.