So you think you know the Bible
Interpretive Maximalism
Need help combating those pesky liberal scholars who insist the Bible has been cobbled together and is nothing but an archaic shambles? Or those premillennialists who gasp in horror when you mention that the church replaced Israel? You need a strong dose of interpretive maximalism. It cuts liberal scholarship and dispensational nonsense to shreds. How? It shows, using repeated typology, that orthodox preterism and postmillennialism flow naturally out of the Old Testament.
Many dismiss it as excessive, overly imaginative and even bizarre. Typology has most definitely been abused. But the Bible contains its own constraints, and from my own experience, its internal consistency is breathtaking. Abuses are easily identifiable. Utilising this method is like reading the Bible in Blu-Ray.
“James B. Jordan’s maximalist hermeneutic seeks to read the Bible in a way that allows the depth and richness of its meaning to be discerned. The relationship between special and general revelation is important, as the world teaches us how to understand the Bible, and the Bible shows us how to interpret the world. The reader of the Bible should learn to be sensitive to all its literary tropes, in particular its rich symbolism and typology. Controls on this maximalist hermeneutic are not found in externally imposed rules but in theological and ecclesiastical traditions which themselves derive from the Bible.”1
“Jordan does brutalise liberal scholarship and force you to think about the whole Bible.”2
A great place to start is Jordan’s lecture series Garden of God. Once slightly inebriated, you will progress to his lectures on Revelation, which are a secret storeroom of single malt. If you claim to be a preterist (of any description) and you haven’t heard these, you haven’t seen the forest for the trees.
David Chilton’s The Days of Vengeance gets downloaded from my site over 30 times a day (add that up for three years!). It’s a great commentary, but Jordan’s lectures use the Bible instead of Josephus to interpret Revelation. Chilton was peeping through the keyhole. Jordan throws open the door. These are cutting edge and, I believe, indispensable for anyone with an interest in preterism.
Available here, or from www.wordmp3.com
– Mike the Maximalist
Addendum: I found an excellent definition of maximalism in the glossary at a site called www.two-age.org
“Maximalism in literature is the scheme in which the author invests each character, image, section, and chapter of the narrative with a reflection of the entire plotline of the story. When we speak of interpretive maximalism with reference to Scripture we mean that principle of hermeneutics by which we recognize that the Author of Scripture has invested reflections of his plan of redemption in each of the many characters, passages, themes, and sections of the Bible; and thus we recognize God’s sovereignty and gracious self-revelation. Interpretive maximalism is a difficult chore, because a thorough understanding of the plot-line is pre-requisite. Thus, any error in one’s understanding of the plot-line is multiplied exponentially in each sub-section.”
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1 Abstract: The Maximalist Hermeneutics of James B. Jordan, R. S Clarke, www.ecclesiareformanda.org.uk
2 J. B. Atken referring to Jordan’s commentary on Daniel, www.puritanboard.com
