Words in Action: Speech Act Theory and Biblical Interpretation by Richard Briggs

by Richard S. Briggs

How is the biblical text understood and how does it function in the life of the reader today? Richard Briggs first provides an illuminating introduction to the nature and claims of speech art theory. This seeks to extend our understanding of both spoken and written means of communication by seeing them not as merely representational or 'reality-depicting', but as acting or causing acts to be performed through the words themselves. Briggs goes on to discuss to what extent the application of speech act theory might be helpful in the interpretation of biblical texts. In one of the first book-length explorations of this topic, he examines in detail several biblical speech acts of particular theological significance, including the confession of sin, forgiveness and teaching. Through exploring the specific ways in which the reader is drawn into the performative action of the biblical text, and how speech act theory forces the reader to look beyond language into the world which gives the language its ability to function, speech act theory is shown to offer valuable insights within today's complex hermeneutical debate. 'A very significant volume . . . '
Alan Torrance, Professor of Divinity, University of Andrews 'An excellent piece of work . . . which is thoroughly acquainted with speech act theory and takes the debate forward in a variety of creative, exegetical and theological ways.'
Dr Craig Bartholomew, University of Gloucestershire

Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 2002

About the author

Richard S. Briggs (PhD, University of Nottingham) is director of biblical studies and hermeneutics at Cranmer Hall, St. John’s College, University of Durham in Durham, England. He is the author of several books.

Reviews

[Filip Sylwestrowicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Briggs' book aims to introduce the speech act theory of Austin and Searle to biblical scholars. He surveys selected developments in the field of speech act analysis, focusing especially on the work of Austin and Searle and challenges of Derrida and Fish. Subsequently, Briggs builds a constructive proposal how the speech-act theory can be used in biblical studies. Briggs' proposal develops further Donal Evans' category of self-involvement. In the last part of the book, Briggs shows how the hermeneutics of self-involvement can be employed to elucidate the biblical speech-acts of confession, forgiveness and teaching.

Briggs is especially helpful as an introduction to the key concepts of speech act theory aimed at biblical scholars. I appreciated his careful exposition of the work of Austin and Searle and his own category of strong illocutions (i.e., illocutions that rely on non-linguistic conventions as opposed to weak illocutions that rely only on linguistic conventions) as a way of retrieving Austin's category of performatives. I am, however, still unsure how speech act theory can become a helpful tool in the hands of biblical scholar. A pay-off of its application seems to me, at least for now, to be too small compared to the effort needed for non-superficial understanding of it.