Layers of hermeneutical context

My Biblical Hermeneutics students often struggled to understand the many layers of context we see in scripture, all of which are important to understand in both their uniqueness and interrelationship if we are to most fully and appropriately understand scripture as it relates to theology and the life of the church both in history and today. The following diagram attempts to capture those layers and their scope in relationship to one another.

layers-of-hermeneutical-context

 

Incarnational church

This diagram is meant to illustrate the nature of the church as the body of Christ. The path of the individual into the church is represented in the spiral in the center, the journey of which is sacramental and into the worship of the community and all that means in preparing the church for he life in and for the world.

ChrisD_incarnational_church