Overview

Many theological interpreters of Scripture have claimed that church practices produce well-formed readers. But which practices? Greg McKinzie argues that missional hermeneutics challenges the church to include participation in God's mission among the indispensable components of readerly formation. After a quarter century of contemporary reflection on missional theology, however, the meaning of participation in God's mission remains vague. In order to explain why it is a critical hermeneutical experience, therefore, McKinzie sets out to develop a theological account of missional participation that incorporates the concepts of theosis, embodied narrativity, and solidarity. Then, in conversation with the hermeneutical phenomenology of Paul Ricoeur, the study suggests how theologically recontextualizing a model of the movement from embodied commitments to textual interpretation in terms of participation in God's mission illuminates the epistemic reconstitution of the church's theological interpretation of Scripture. Understanding participation in God's mission as theological interpretation's proper locus theologicus should reorient the notion of readerly formation because the formation of missional readers is the process in which God opens the reading community's embodied eyes of faith through the works of faith seeking understanding.

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Reviews

""This is the book for which I have been waiting! McKinzie explores why theological hermeneutics needs the discipline of missional hermeneutics lest theological interpretation fall short of its own goals. Readerly formation must include missional participation. Healthy theological interpretation is saturated and driven by the missio Dei or else it becomes merely an extra-ecclesial activity. This, in turn, misses the message and practices of the narrative itself. Both disciplines need each other. Missional hermeneutics recasts theological interpretation toward participating in the mission of God. McKinzie offers what is generally lacking in the literature. He defines missional participation through the lens of theological, missiological, and ecclesial formation. Participation in the missio Dei, the book cogently argues, forms better readers of Scripture. This is a primary virtue of missional hermeneutics."" --John Mark Hicks, retired Professor of Theology, Lipscomb University ""Christians have long realized that ecclesial practices shape faithful readers of Scripture. But is mission one of these practices? In The Hermeneutics of Participation, Greg McKinzie responds with a resounding 'yes.' Substantive, deeply researched, and engaging, this book offers the most thorough argument available that participation in God's mission is hermeneutically foundational for the church. McKinzie's case is convincing: mission constitutes the eyes of faith necessary to read Scripture well. The arguments this book offers, if taken seriously, will strengthen the church's hermeneutical imagination."" --Derek W. Taylor, Director, Emmaus Program, Whitworth University ""Greg McKinzie has provided an invaluable contribution to the urgent need for the church to be at heart a missional church participating in the trinitarian mission of God to the world. From his own missional experience and theological immersion, he has woven together an impressive number of sometimes disparate threads, especially missional theology, the theological interpretation of Scripture, and the philosophical hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur. All readers will be more properly formed through his work."" --Dan Stiver, President, Fletcher Seminary, Texas ""In this sophisticated and significant book, Greg McKinzie argues for a missional hermeneutic of transformative, cruciform, embodied participation in the life and mission of the Triune God--or 'works seeking understanding.' Building on, but also challenging, previous work in missional hermeneutics and in theological interpretation, McKinzie reconfigures the landscape of both as he creatively brings them together. A landmark volume."" --Michael J. Gorman, Raymond E. Brown Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies, St. Mary's Seminary's University, Baltimore

Author Information

Greg McKinzie is an Assistant Professor at Abilene Christian University's Department of Bible, Missions, and Ministry and an Affiliate Assistant Professor at Fuller Theological Seminary. He was the missions minister at the Stones River Church of Christ in Murfreesboro, Tennessee (2021-25), and served as a cross-cultural missionary in Arequipa, Peru (2008-15).

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