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Biblical Studies

The Relationship between Theology of Sacred Scripture and Biblical Hermeneutics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.52097/wpt.10334  [Google Scholar]
Published: 2026-10-22

Abstract

The article addresses a fundamental issue in contemporary theology: the relationship between the ontology of Sacred Scripture (the understanding of its nature as both the Divine Word and human one) and biblical hermeneutics (understood as the methodology of interpretation). The study aims to demonstrate that the identity crisis within modern biblical scholarship stems from the modern severance of the bond between history and theology, and subsequently proposes an integrative model. The first section presents a diachronic analysis of evolving paradigms: from the Patristic and Medieval unity of Sacra Pagina, through the Enlightenment’s methodological shift (B. Spinoza, J.Ph. Gabler) which led to the dominance of historicism, to the 20th-century hermeneutical turn (K. Barth, H.-G. Gadamer, P. Ricœur). The second section discusses contemporary attempts to overcome the dualism between exegesis and dogmatics, with particular emphasis on the Conciliar Constitution Dei verbum, the theological thought of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, as well as canonical criticism and the Theological Interpretation of Scripture (TIS) movements. The article concludes with the author’s proposal for a “Christological-sacramental hermeneutics”. Based on the analogy of the Incarnation and Chalcedonian logic (union without confusion or separation), this model postulates the necessity of combining rigorous historical-critical research with a reading grounded in the faith of the Church. Such an approach allows Sacred Scripture to be treated not as a dead artifact of the past, but as a sacramental, performative word, for which the liturgy serves as the natural hermeneutical environment.

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