Fifth Gospel: Isaiah in the History of Christianity, The

Anglican Theological Review, Fall 1997 by Soulen, R Kendall

The Fifth Gospel: Isaiah in the History of Christianity. By John F. A. Sawyer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. xvii 281 pp. $17.95 (paper).

Over the past two centuries, countless biblical commentaries have sought to free biblical interpretation from the presuppositions of ecclesial doctrine and popular piety, and by the rigorous use of historical-critical methods, to exhibit the text's true meaning, i.e., the meaning that it possessed in its original context. One of the most impoverishing legacies of this interpretive model is that it has isolated the modern critical commentary from serious engagement with the church's pre-critical readings of the Bible. In The Fifth Gospel, John F. A. Sawyer seeks to rectify this situation, proposing a model for the critical biblical commentary that focuses not on what a text meant in its original context, but on what it has been understood to mean down through the centuries (its Wirkungsgeschichte). To exemplify his approach, Sawyer has chosen the inexhaustibly rich instance of Isaiah in the Christian tradition. Following the example of Jaroslav Pelikan in his popular Jesus through the Centuries (New York: Harper and Row, 1985), Sawyer organizes his book chiefly according to historical periods, within which he pursues major themes that trace features of Isaianic interpretation across time and place. Sawyer's focus is extremely broad, including not only the Isaiah of monk and theologian, but also of preacher, iconographer, poet, and musician. Nor does Sawyer slight the modern period. He gives a chapter to Isaiah as read by the historical critics, by feminist theologies, and by liberation theologians. Sawyer is to be especially commended for attending to the disquieting theme of Isaiah and the Jews, and showing how Christians have read the prophet to disinherit the Jews of the Scripture and its promises.

As a general, non-technical introduction to the interpretation of Isaiah in the Christian tradition, The Fifth Gospel is a success. It is clearly written, informative, and a pleasure to browse. The reader will certainly share Sawyer's hope that the book will prod future writers to expand the conception of the critical biblical commentary to include, in some fashion, the history of interpretation. Nevertheless, on this past point, the book is likely to serve more as a goad than as a successful model of how the task is to be done. One problem is the sheer range of disciplines that Sawyer purports to cover, an approach that excludes more than a brief glance in any one direction. One feels a bit like the hapless museum-goer who must move from crowded gallery to gallery at the behest of a quick-talking guide. A related difficulty is Sawyer's decision (dictated no doubt by limitation of space) to attend to what different ages took Isaiah to mean, but not to the methods by which they arrived at their insights (p. 16). This is, it seems to me, an especially odd and unfortunate decision for a history of interpretation, one virtually guaranteed to offer the reader only a superficial understanding of how a given writer or epoch understood a text. A final difficulty concerns the admittedly vexed question of the criteria for evaluating an interpretive tradition for adequacy or truth. Despite its reductive limitations (or perhaps because of them), the classical historical-critical commentary operated with a clear criterion for evaluating an interpretation, i.e., approximation to a texts original meaning. In place of this test, Sawyer proposes that interpretations be assessed in light of a "religious scale of values" (p. 248). But precisely what this hierarchy is, how it is to be arrived at, and how it may relate to traditional claims for the authority of Scripture, Sawyer does not say.

Despite these drawbacks, the book offers a pleasurable window onto the riches of biblical interpretation in the Christian tradition, one that will prove attractive to clergy, laity, student, and teacher alike. The handsomely produced book includes 38 black-and-white plates, and a useful index of biblical passages that allows the reader to investigate the interpretation of nearly every verse in the book of Isaiah.

R. KENDALL SOULEN

We Theological Seminar

Washington, DC