THE COVERT MAGISTERIUM: THEOLOGY, TEXTUALITY AND THE QUESTION OF SCRIPTURE By David Dault Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Religion May, 2009 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Professor Paul J. DeHart Professor M. Douglas Meeks Professor J. Patout Burns Professor Leonard J. Greenspoon (Creighton University) Professor William Franke Copyright © 2009 by David Dault All Rights Reserved For Kira iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to acknowledge the funding from the R.C. Dougherty Fellowship for Graduate studies, the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst, and two Dissertation Writing Fellowships received from the Center for Ethics at Vanderbilt University, for their generous support of my scholarly work over many of these past nine years. I thank my committee: Paul J. DeHart, M. Douglas Meeks, J. Patout Burns, Leonard Greenspoon of Creighton University, and William Franke. They each in their own way have contributed to this project, through ideas and feedback, certainly, but also through example, hospitality, energy and pedagogy. Under their care the major errors have been eliminated; those that remain are all mine. I appreciate so much what each of these fine scholars have brought, individually and collectively, to the betterment of this project. I owe a debt of gratitude to Jimmy Barker, Burt Fulmer, Alexander Badenoch, J. Aaron Simmons, Kurt Schreiber, and David J. Dunn for their support, involvement and incisive criticisms at all stages of the project. Additionally, the Dunn family, Abigail Redman, Maria Mayo Robbins, Katy Attanasi Barker, Sean Hayden, Theron Welch and the Welch family, Robert Pound, the extended Hartger and Bandstra families, Bru and Thea Wallace, Alicia Ruvinsky Rojas, Richard Gross, S.J., William “Doc” Martin, Shane and Virginia Bartlett, Wilson Dickinson, Joshua Braley, Katy Scrogin, Jill and Doug Davis, Anson Mount and Jason Ingalls have provided love and much needed stability throughout the thinking and writing stages. iv I thank my families: Allyn, Charles and Allyne Dault, and Susan, Harold and Phillip Hartger, for their encouragement and patience while I talk and talk through ideas at dinner tables and during vacations, and for loving me all the while. For five years during this degree I was honored to serve as the pastor of Central Presbyterian Church, Culleoka, TN. I thank each of the congregants for their generosity, hospitality, and Christian witness. They gave me as good an education as I have received in any classroom. I am also thankful for the prayers and the people of Columbia Presbyterian Church in Decatur, GA, the Atlanta Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, and Christ the King parish here in Nashville. I appreciate very much the support of President Forrest Harris, Sr., and the students, faculty and staff of American Baptist College, throughout my studies at Vanderbilt. I am also thankful for the active core of scholars in the Vanderbilt Graduate Theological Society, as well as my colleagues in the Graduate Department of Religion. As this dissertation is the capstone of many years of education, it is fitting as well to acknowledge several teachers who, through the years, were inspirations and advocates for me. These include Sherry Garcia, Alice Anderson, Sharon Ellis, Richard Spencer Garrard, Brent Norris, David Owen Youngblood, Tina Cliff Epperson, Pat Coffield, Glenn Walls, Rick Roderick, Robbe Delcamp, William Garland, Ronald H. Cram, Rav Shai Cherry, George Stroup, and Walter Brueggemann. I also thank Tim Beal, Jacques Derrida, Walter Lowe, and Peter Ochs for their availability and willingness to comment on my work through the years. I am thankful for the inspiration of my patron, Saint Genesius, as well as Myles Horton, John Henry Newman, Milton S. Mayer, and E.A. "Red" Schaal. v The bulk of this dissertation was written under the influence of non-linear musics, in particular John Cage, Aphex Twin, Collections of Colonies of Bees, and El Ten Eleven. They are not to be blamed for the results. I wish to thank the staff of the Graduate Department of Religion and Divinity School, in particular Marie McEntire and Jimmy Byrd, for innumerable moments of help and care. I also owe more than I can adequately express to Ira Heldeman, Julia McAninch, the staff of the Vanderbilt Psychological and Counseling Center, and the men of the Belmont United Methodist Church Al-Anon Family Group. After my defense, during the final revisions of this project, my mother, Ann Dault Thomas, passed away. Though she and I did not see eye to eye on matters of faith, I have no doubt that I am the better scholar for her fervent questions and skepticism. She was for me, throughout her life, a model of tenacious rhetoric and fearless inquiry. I salute her, and her struggles, and miss her very much. I am no apologist, though if I were and wanted to offer proof of God's loving providence, I need look no further than Kira. Much better than I deserved, more amazing than I could have imagined, more loving than I thought possible: I am so thankful for you, my dear wife. Thank you. vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Christ, Pantokrator ................................................................................................68 2. Hermeneutic Circle (as Spiral)............................................................................113 3. The Axes of Work, Text and Book.....................................................................124 4. Leth at the Banquet Table, Falkland Road, from The Five Obstructions...........293 vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION.............................................................................................................. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.......................................................................................... iv LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................... vii Chapter I. A TALE OF TWO BIBLES ....................................................................................1 The Subject of the Present Work .......................................................................8 Key Definitions of the Project .........................................................................12 The Biblioplex .................................................................................................41 Methodological Assumptions and Framing Questions....................................51 Outline of the Project.......................................................................................60 II. THE REIFICATION OF "SCRIPTURE," AND ITS CONFUSION WITH PRINTED SCRIPTURES....................................................................................62 Clarifying the Term "Clearly" .........................................................................64 The Reification of Scripture.............................................................................66 Kelsey's Formal Examination of Scripture ......................................................85 III. THE ART AND ENTERPRISE OF (RE)PRODUCING BIBLES ...................105 The Textuality of the Printed Artifact............................................................108 Analysis of Textuality: The Matrices of Stability Along Three Axes...........115 The Axes of Textuality ..................................................................................122 Conclusion .....................................................................................................168 IV. R.S. SUGIRTHARAJAH'S POSTCOLONIAL RECONFIGURATIONS..........174 Overview of Postcolonialism.........................................................................180 Sugirtharajah's Project ...................................................................................182 Convergence and Divergence ........................................................................204 Conclusion .....................................................................................................212 V. PETER OCHS AND THE "SCRIPTURAL REASONING" PROJECT...........215 viii The Milieu of Scriptural Reasoning..............................................................217 Scriptural Reasoning and Magisterial Effects................................................230 Reasoning Together: Reading as Ethical Embodiment .................................238 Conclusion .....................................................................................................253 VI. A BROKEN BOOK...........................................................................................256 The Project to This Point ..............................................................................256 Wolterstorff's Nonfoundationalist Epistemology .........................................258 The Argument of the Present Project, Briefly Restated................................275 Shalom-Justice, Tikkun Olam and the Theo-Political...................................281 Ideology and Material Practice .....................................................................303 BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................................................................................322 ix Pilate also wrote a title and put it on the cross; it read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in