ABSTRACT
This conclusion returns to the unsolvable tensions at the heart of the idea of Scripture. The written word of God is scandalously finite, and yet through this creaturely reality, the transcendent creator has chosen to address his creatures. The text is universally authoritative, and yet as a historically finite work of human language, its horizon must be continually fused to generate new – and often contested – applications relevant to the reader's present situation. This conclusion reviews the three case studies, observing how Gadamer and genre theory have helped analyse their reception histories and cultivated a wirkungsgeschichtliches Bewusstsein. Rather than attempt to collapse the superposition of divine transcendence and historical particularity, authority and application, a Gadamerian hermeneutics invites readers to tarry in the space it opens up, much as one might with a work of art.
