ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about the hermeneutical architectonic that govern Oliver O'Donovan's reading of Scripture. If the formal display of O'Donovan's hermeneutic architectonic is problematic, then so is his choice of themes and relative concentration on certain scriptural concepts. There is a subtlety and depth to O'Donovan's argument that can be lost on the casual reader, especially the reader who mistakenly assumes that whatever O'Donovan is about can be safely subsumed under political categories and paradigms. Although it may be advisable for strategic reasons to elaborate a political theology before one engages in a political ethics, the two are inseparable and emerge concurrently. O'Donovan is right about Christian theologians needing to devise their own political theology and orientation with an eye to the legacy of Israel as disclosed in the scriptural tradition. He isolates three primary "terms" that constitute the "exegetical framework" of his political theology.
