Yesterday I went to the library at Notre Dame Seminary after class and saw Denis Farkasfalvy’s book Inspiration and Interpretation: A Theological Introduction on Sacred Scripture on the cart of new arrivals.  I checked it out and pretty well couldn’t put it down.

Farkasfalvy covers some of the same ground that Peter Enns does in his book Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament (which I also like a great deal).  However, he comes at it, at least in my estimation, from a very different direction.  This likely has a lot to do with the aims of the different books, yet I can’t help but wonder if it might not also have a lot to do with their audiences.

Farkasfalvy begins with the Biblical material on inspiration and moves through successive stages: patristic exegesis, the middle ages, modernity, Vatican II and following.  In the final chapter, he provides a synthesis, which consists of an incarnational model for understanding inspiration and interpretation.

I haven’t had to time really fully reflect on the book just yet, but I must say that I think his synthesis provides a very helpful framework for thinking about scripture.  Perhaps I’ll write a more extensive review a bit later on.  But, for now, I’d highly recommend the text to anyone here interested in the topic of inspiration.