To Hear the Word
second edition
John Howard Yoder
Foreword by Michael J. Gorman
TO HEAR THE WORD
Second Edition
Copyright © 2010 Anne Marie Yoder. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.
Cascade Books
A Division of Wipf and Stock Publishers
199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3
Eugene, OR 97401
www.wipfandstock.com
isbn 13: 978-1-60608-928-6
isbn 13: 978-1-63087-525-1
Cataloging-in-Publication data:
Yoder, John Howard.
To hear the word : second edition / John Howard Yoder ; foreword by Michael J. Gorman.
xxiv + 242 p. ; 23 cm. Includes bibliographical references.
isbn 13: 978-1-60608-928-6
1. Bible—Reading. 2. Bible—Hermeneutics. 3. Bible—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 4. Bible and Christian union. I. Gorman, Michael J. II. Title.
bs617 y63 2010
Manufactured in the U.S.A.
“Is Not His Word Like a Fire? The Bible and Civil Turmoil” was first published in John Howard Yoder, For the Nations: Essays, Public and Evangelical © 1997 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission of the publisher; all rights reserved.
“The Hermeneutics of the Anabaptists” was first published in Mennonite Quarterly Review 41 (1967) 291–308. Reprinted by permission of John D. Roth, editor of MQR.
To Paul Minear
and
Hans-Ruedi Weber,
who have modeled for a generation the straightforward ecumenical, missionary, and pastoral reading of Scripture.
Publisher’s Preface to the 2009 Edition
In December of 1997, one of our publishers, Jon Stock, was in the middle of corresponding with John Howard Yoder about the final details of a new book to be titled To Hear the Word. Yoder’s untimely death on December 30, 1997, meant not only that the publication of the book had to be delayed—the first edition of To Hear the Word did not appear until 2001—it also meant that a number of questions about the final shape of the manuscript were left unanswered. This second edition of To Hear the Word has grown out of a conviction at Wipf and Stock that this important book by Yoder deserves a wider hearing, and that a revised and expanded edition of the book can contribute to that cause.
Acquiring a collection of essays by John Howard Yoder was a momentous event for Wipf and Stock Publishers back in 1997. A dozen years ago, Wipf and Stock was a fledgling reprint company. There was no “new book” program to speak of, we had not yet launched our flagship new-book imprint (Cascade Books), nor had we acquired Pickwick Press, which has since become Pickwick Publications—an imprint dedicated to academic theological scholarship. It says something about both the company’s aspirations and Yoder’s generosity that this project ever got off the ground.
However, in a number of ways the first edition of To Hear the Word reflects the company’s youth and inexperience at the time. There are numerous typos throughout the first edition—some small but several quite large. The typesetting falls far short of the company’s current standards, as do the cover design and other aspects of the book’s production. These shortcomings prompted us to initiate a new edition of the book. In the course of locating and revising the original files, three additional writings were discovered, together with evidence that Yoder had intended for these pieces to be included in the volume. The three pieces appear in this second edition as chapter 8, “Is Not His Word Like a Fire?,” chapter 12, “Straightforwardness about Jesus: A Hermeneutic Apologia,” and chapter 15, “Obiter Scripta, Reading Carefully: A Bibliography of John Howard Yoder’s Scriptural Studies.”
The publishers wish to extend their gratitude to members of the Yoder family, as well as to Michael B. Cartwright and Mark T. Nation for their collaboration on this revised edition. Cartwright and Nation strongly encouraged the inclusion of an earlier essay by Yoder, “The Hermeneutics of the Anabaptists” (1967), which appears here as an appendix.
Publisher’s Preface to the 2001 Edition
This collection of essays was originally planned to be published in early 1998. John Howard Yoder died unexpectedly on December 30 of 1997, while this collection was in the later stages of editing. We want to thank Anne Marie Yoder and the Yoder family for having been most gracious in allowing this publication to be completed.
Soon after the appearance of The Politics of the Jesus (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972, revised 1994), it became apparent that John Howard Yoder was being interpreted by some readers as the advocate of a distinct way of reading the Bible. He was cited as representative of a type in Birch and Rasmussen (The Bible and Ethics in the Christian Life [Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1976]), and again, differently, in their second edition (1989). Later he was labeled as a type by James Gustafson (Beckley and Swezey, James Gustafson’s Theocentric Ethics: Interpretations and Assessments [Macon: Mercer University Press, 1988] 220).
While protesting that there was nothing idiosyncratic, original, or sectarian about his reading of biblical texts, Yoder did respond to invitations to explain himself in various writings that have mostly remained unpublished until now.
This book is divided into three sections, all related to Yoder’s thoughts on his reading of Scripture. Section one offers up three exegetical studies. Yoder did not consider these pieces examples of “putting method to work,” as if he first chose a method and then used it. Instead, he saw these essays as examples of “straightforward” reading which lead (and which led, in fact) to people thinking that he should explain himself. Section two, entitled “Reading with Care,” is Yoder’s attempt to explain himself. The final section, “From the Archives,” is primarily a collection of dated but relevant essays that shed further light on why Yoder read Scripture as he did. An epilogue to the Archives is Yoder’s response to Richard Hays’s Moral Vision of the New Testament (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1996). John intended this material to be primarily a review of Hays and only secondarily an explanation of himself. As the essay evolved, Yoder became convinced that it would be more interesting to contrast himself with Stanley Hauerwas (who is also assessed by Hays in the book) than to defend himself with Hays. Although the essay was still in “rough” form when John died, we have nevertheless chosen to include it due to its relevance.
At one time a university press suggested that this collection should be entitled “How to Read the Bible.” Yoder rejected this title because he felt it was too methodologistic. Later, this material had been titled by Yoder himself as “How to be Read by the Bible.” The title needed changing because, according to Yoder, “the idea that what God is interested in is ‘reading me,’ is itself part of the problem.” He felt that it wrongly suggested subjectivism, as if he thought, as a pietist or a puritan, that the first agenda in Scripture reading is “my own being illuminated or ‘read’ or seen through.” By the time of his death, John had decided that “To Hear the Word” best expressed what he wanted these essays to address.
John Howard Yoder understood himself as very concerned about logic and about detail in exposition and argument. He was “Pennsylvania dutch Midwest”; his father was the first of his line to