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| Typology | | Date Created: Oct 26, 2003, 01:52 PM |
Typology Again
Every year this issue comes up in my discussions with the seminary students at Providence who attend Covenant Seminary. What is typology? How does it differ from allegory? Is it a legitimate way of interpreting the OT? Are there any guidelines for doing it? Safeguards against speculation? Well, obviously, I cannot answer all of these questions in a short blog entry. But I can direct you to important books that will.
Because we are Reformed and therefore whole-Bible Christians we must learn how to read the OT properly. And that, IMHO, demands a typological reading. You will not only have to study the hermeneutical "theory" of typology, but you will also have to read or hear it done well. Here's what I suggest.
Peter Leithart, The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church (Phillipsburg, PA: Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing, 1993). This is an amazing book. Peter has given us one of the most brilliant biblical theologies of the kingdom available today. In the process he shows you how to do typology. Get this book before it goes out of print.
Peter Leithart, A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament_(Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 2000). Here is a book that actually takes you through the entire redemptive history of the "OT" so that you can understand the flow of redemptive history. Most OT survey books give you banal "outlines" of books and events that hardly help you understand the progress of redemptive history. And Peter's long introduction is a fairly technical essay defending typological readings as the only legitimate way to read the OT.
Peter Leithart,
A Son to Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel (Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 2003). Just published. THIS is how to write a commentary on an OT book! You will see Peter analyzing the text as literature as well as offering well-founded typological readings of the stories of Samuel, Saul, and David.
James B. Jordan, Through New Eyes: Developing a Biblical View of the World (Wipf & Stock, 1998). This is a MUST read. I'll tell you right now that you will not agree with everything Jim says as you read through the book. But when you finish it, read through the Bible, then read it again. I'm telling you that once you get these ideas in your head, you'll see them all over the Bible. I've heard this testimony repeated over and over again by men who read Jim's book and at first were mildly hostile. American Protestant and Reformed people don't think much about symbolism and ritual, but it's all over the Bible and if we are going to read the Bible for all it's worth, then we'll have to have lessons on ritual and symbolism. This is a great place to start.
James B. Jordan, Primeval Saints: Studies in the Patriarchs of Genesis (Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 2001). Here's Jim doing biblical theology by analyzing the lives of the patriarchs (Adam to Joseph) in Genesis. You think you understand these narratives? Think again. Read Jim's analysis.
If you have and read these five books, you'll have the best instruction in OT history and typology around. I learned more from these men that I did from my OT classes in seminary. These books are indispensable for a modern Reformed pastor that wants to preach through the OT.
Yes, the books I recommend above have all been published in the last decade or so. That, of course, doesn't mean that a typological reading of the OT is only a few decades old. Quite the contrary. If anything, the way many modern American Christians read the OT (if they do) looking for psychological and moral "help" is thoroughly modern. The book to read is Moises Silva's Has the Church Misread the Bible?
Nevertheless, there is some truth to the observation that we are indeed doing something new in modern what is now called "biblical theology" in contemporary theology. It's grounded in the older, pre-critical way in which the church interpreted the OT. But it is also firmly situated within the newer work done by Geerhardus Vos at the turn of the 20th century and those who followed in his footsteps. |
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