The Spirit and the Letter A Tradition and a Reversal

The statement of Paul that 'letter kills but the spirit gives life' [2 Corinthians 3.6] has had an extraordinary impact on Christian thought through the ages. It has been read both as affirming the saving power of the new covenant in comparison to the old, and as a key to hidden, spiritual meanings in the text of scripture. It is, however, an ambiguous phrase, followed by a tangled story. This book explores the Pauline distinction both in its original context and in its aftermath in the early church, the Reformation and modern biblical studies. It discusses the two movements - the 'letter to Spirit' and the 'Spirit to letter' - and their relevance for the understanding of Paul's thought. Overall, it grapples with the theological challenge of giving the kind of weight to material signs in the world ['letter'] that the postmodern mood urges, while affirming the presence of transcendent Spirit in the world.

Günter Bader was until recently Professor for Systematic Theology in the Protestant Theology Faculty of the University of Bonn, Germany.

Preface \ Part I: The Project \ Whatever Happened to a Pauline Text? 2 Corinthians 3.6 and its Afterlife, Günter Badder and Paul S. Fiddes \ Part II: Spirit and Letter: a Tradition \ ‘Spirit' and ‘Letter' in the New Testament, Michael Wolter \ Spirit and Letter: A Taxonomy of Modern Biblical Interpretation, Robert Morgan \ From Letter to Spirit to Letter: the Faith as Written Creed, Wolfram Kinzig \ Spirit and Letter in Origen and Augustine, Morwenna Ludlow \ Part III: Letter and Spirit: a Reversal \ The Late-Modern Reversal of Spirit and Letter: Derrida, Augustine and Film, Paul S. Fiddes \ Letter and Spirit in Schleiermacher's Speeches on Religion, Günter Badder \ Inspired Reading, Speaking and Listening: Letter and Spirit in Preaching, Michael Meyer-Blanck \ The Meaningful Death of Meaning: Tradition and Letter in Kafka and Scholem, Jochen Schmidt \ Spirit, Body and Letter, Oliver Davies \ Bibliography \ Index