Doing Justice to the Text: A Missional Hermeneutic of Embodied Participation

The self-diagnosis of “identity crisis” is long-standing among theologians in Churches of Christ. Yet the explanations of this condition’s causes and solutions are varied and seemingly unable to effect a resolution. This paper considers the historical symptoms of identity crisis, a more specific diagnosis with the aid of Paul Ricoeur’s philosophical work, and a hermeneutical prescription suitable for this diagnosis. In order to move beyond identity crisis, Churches of Christ must embrace a missional hermeneutic of the biblical text that entails the embodiment of God’s justice as an interpretive agenda. We must, in short, do justice to the text.