Reception Hermeneutics and the “Development” of Doctrine: An Alternative Model

Abstract

Despite its strengths, the development model for understanding the history of doctrine has certain inadequacies. It is proposed that the category of “reception” provides a more adequate reading of doctrinal history. Appropriating the reception hermeneutics of Hans Robert Jauss, this approach envisages the expression of doctrine and dogma in any age as part of the living reception of the living tradition. Such a reception-model highlights a certain dynamic evident in the history of doctrine that has implications for the interpretation of doctrine and dogma today.