Book Review: Scripture as Communication by Jeannine K. Brown

Brown, Jeannine K. Scripture as Communication: Introducing Biblical Hermeneutics. Baker Academic, 2021.

The Book’s Heartbeat

Brown’s central thesis is disarmingly simple: Scripture is not a code to decode but a conversation to enter. The Bible, she argues, is fundamentally communication—divine truth conveyed through human authors acting as communicative agents. To read the Bible faithfully, then, is to listen to God by attending carefully to those authors’ communicative acts within their literary, linguistic, and social worlds.

That claim is both theological and pastoral. Theologically, Brown insists that revelation is personal because God reveals himself through communicative action, not merely through propositions. Pastorally, she contends that reading the Bible well requires the same humility, empathy, and attentiveness that make for good listening in any relationship. Her aim is not to flatten hermeneutics into technique but to form readers who approach Scripture as conversation partners within the household of faith.

The result is a book that functions as both theory and training manual—a bridge between the bible college classroom and the local church. For pastors wanting to help leaders grasp why meaning matters and how interpretation actually works, Scripture as Communication is one of the most accessible introductions available.

The Shape of the Argument

Brown divides the book into two main sections:

Part 1–“Theoretical Perspectives on Scripture as Communication.” This is where she builds her model of meaning.

Part 2–“Practical Guidance for Interpreting Scripture as Communication.” Here she demonstrates how the model plays out in exegesis and application.

1. Introduction and Foundations

The opening chapter reads like a quiet manifesto. Through stories about her two daughters, Brown illustrates how even the simplest conversation is layered with intention, context, and interpretation. Communication, she notes, is never mere transmission of data—it’s relational. If that’s true of human conversation, it’s doubly true of divine–human discourse.

From that insight emerges her working definition:

“Scripture’s meaning can be understood as the communicative act of the author, inscribed in the text, and addressed to the intended audience for purposes of engagement.”

That sentence captures the book in miniature. Every later discussion about authorship, genre, language, and contextualisation flows from it.

2. Terminology and Context for Hermeneutics (ch. 1)

Brown begins with conceptual hygiene. “Hermeneutics,” she explains, is second-order reflection—thinking about how we think when we interpret. She resists the common illusion that reading can ever be “uninterpreted.” Every act of reading involves assumptions about meaning, language, and reality.

Her guiding conviction is that meaning is of the author, inscribed in the text, and addressed to the audience—not a free-floating property waiting for the reader’s imagination to create it. Against both naïve literalism and radical reader-response theory, she asserts that texts are communicative acts embedded in history.

This is the most useful early chapter for pastors training others: it clears the fog around buzzwords like exegesis, meaning, contextualisation, and application. Brown’s examples—from newspaper reading to Genesis 14’s “bitumen pits”—help readers feel the interpretive gap between ancient world and modern pew.

3. A Communication Model of Hermeneutics (ch. 2)

Here Brown gets theoretical—but never impenetrably so. Drawing from linguistics (Ernst-August Gutt’s Relevance Theory), philosophy (Nicholas Wolterstorff’s Divine Discourse), and theology (Kevin Vanhoozer’s speech-act model), she constructs a triadic model of author–text–reader.

Meaning, she argues, resides in the communicative act—what the author does in writing, not merely what the words contain. The text mediates that act, and readers participate by entering the communicative event through empathetic understanding.

Brown’s gentle critique of purely “code” models (where authors encode and readers decode) is pastorally significant. Treating Scripture as a code breeds pedantic literalism or proof-texting. Treating it as communication invites relationship and transformation.

Her writing here is clear enough for educated lay readers but nuanced enough for bible college discussion. She walks the line between accessibility and rigour with rare skill.

4. Authors, Texts, and Readers (ch. 3–6)

These chapters trace the intellectual history of hermeneutics. From author-centred classicism, through text-centred structuralism, to reader-centred postmodernism she offers a corrective balance to lop-sided hermeneutical practitioners. Brown critiques each movement sympathetically, showing what they got right and where they went astray.

Her own synthesis aims to keep all three in conversation. Authors communicate, texts embody that communication, and readers respond within the believing community. Meaning emerges from that dynamic interplay rather than from any single pole.

Chapters 4–6 then flesh out implications: meaning is stable but expansive; texts have illocutionary force (they do things, like warn, comfort, exhort); and readers must engage actively yet humbly. Her recurring refrain—“listening well to the biblical authors trains us to listen well to people”—reminds the reader that hermeneutics is moral as well as intellectual formation.

From Theory to Practice

The book’s second half (chs. 7–12) is where busy pastors will see the payoff. Brown moves from philosophy to pulpit, demonstrating how her communication model clarifies the everyday tasks of biblical interpretation.

1. Genre and Communication (ch. 7)

Genre, she argues, is not decorative packaging but part of the author’s communicative act. Reading a lament as though it were a legal code distorts intention. Each genre carries its own “rules of conversation.”

For teaching teams, this chapter alone is worth the price of admission. Brown provides succinct guidance on how different biblical genres “speak”: narrative persuades through story; poetry evokes through parallelism; prophecy confronts; epistle exhorts. She illustrates with plentiful examples drawn from both Testaments—a welcome improvement in the second edition, which integrates more Old Testament material than the first published in 2007.

A mild critique: while Brown mentions genre conventions, her taxonomy is broad. Pastors hoping for detailed sub-genres (say, parables vs. miracle stories) will need to supplement with works like Leland Ryken or Gordon Fee & Douglas Stuart. Still, her emphasis on genre as communication is pedagogically powerful.

2. The Language of the Bible (ch. 8)

Brown explains semantics, metaphor, and idiom with the clarity of a linguist who knows when to step off the academic treadmill. She warns against assuming one-to-one word meanings across contexts (“root fallacy”), echoing D. A. Carson yet keeping the focus relational: words mean what authors intend in sentences addressed to audiences.

Her practical sections on figurative language are especially valuable for preachers. She models how to discern when imagery intends description, evaluation, or exhortation—helping leaders avoid both wooden literalism and sentimental over-spiritualisation.

3. The Social World of the Bible (ch. 9)

One of Brown’s strengths is her capacity to make historical context feel theological, not merely archaeological. She presents the “social world” as part of God’s communicative design. Understanding first-century patronage or ancient Near Eastern covenant forms is not trivia; it’s how we respect the communicative intent of Scripture’s authors.

Her tone throughout is invitational rather than corrective—ideal for training contexts where some leaders may fear “historical-critical” approaches. Brown models how to integrate cultural-historical study with faith commitment, showing that exegesis is cross-cultural ministry across time.

4. Literary Context, Intertextuality, and Canon (ch. 10)

This chapter gathers the threads: meaning arises in context—immediate, book-level, and canonical. Brown encourages reading whole biblical books to capture authorial flow and warns against the homiletical habit of isolating verses or pericope. Her advice aligns somewhere between grammatical-historical and narrative-theological approaches but retains a communication lens: context is where we trace the author’s ongoing speech acts.

Her discussion of canon as the final frame of reference helps readers hold together human and divine authorship without collapsing one into the other. She perhaps anticipates later work by Vanhoozer’s transfigural eschatological hermeneutic (see Mere Christian Hermeneutics, 2024). Yet the book could have gone further. The treatment of canonical shaping (e.g., how the Twelve Prophets function as a unified book) is suggestive but brief. Those teaching advanced courses may wish for engagement with canonical critics like Brevard Childs or Christopher Seitz.

5. Contextualisation and Incarnational Hermeneutics (ch. 11–12)

Brown concludes with two rich chapters on bringing Scripture into new cultural settings. Contextualisation, she writes, is “hearing Scripture’s meaning speak in new contexts.” It is not optional decoration but the continuation of communication.

Her incarnational metaphor—Scripture “takes on flesh” in every culture—beautifully captures the tension between timeless message and contextual embodiment. She urges interpreters to move beyond cognitive understanding toward obedient response: hearing leads to doing.

These chapters are pastoral gold. They help leaders navigate between rigid literalism and relativistic accommodation. Brown’s model honours both the distance and nearness of Scripture—the Bible as foreign land and familiar friend.

Appendices and Pedagogical Tools

Six appendices provide practical helps: guidelines for exegesis, overviews of historical criticism, Hebrew poetry, tracing argument in epistles, mapping narrative plots, and conducting topical studies. They’re concise but classroom-ready. In my view they serve as a perfect accompaniment to pastors seeking to mentor emerging teachers.

A new glossary in the second edition strengthens its use as a training text; key terms appear in bold throughout. For readers daunted by hermeneutical jargon, this feature makes the book remarkably accessible.

Strengths for Pastoral Formation

Integration of Theory and Practice. Brown’s great achievement is bridging the gap between complex hermeneutical theories and practical teaching for the congregation. She translates complex debates into tools pastors can run with.

Relational Hermeneutic. Her communication model humanises interpretation. The focus on authorial intent as communicative act reframes exegesis as an act of love—listening well to the other. This forms habits of empathy, humility, and attentiveness vital to pastoral leadership and Christian living.

Balanced Triad. By giving due place to author, text, and reader, she avoids the “engineering-mindset” that has plagued parts of evangelicalism and the vapidness of postmodern subjectivism. Her model invites dialogue across theological traditions, an example I have certainly learned from.

Pedagogical Clarity. Brown’s prose is lively, free of jargon for its own sake, and dotted with everyday analogies. Her opening stories about her daughters do more pedagogical work than many whole textbooks.

Confessional Posture. While Brown writes as a believing scholar, she assumes Scripture’s authority while engaging academic hermeneutics critically. For pastors wary of the “academic turn”, this stance offers both reassurance and challenge.

Areas Where the Book Is Found Wanting

No book can do everything, and part of Brown’s humility is her restraint. Still, several limitations deserve mention—especially for those using it in leadership training.

a. Limited Theological Depth on Divine Authorship. While Brown affirms that human communication is the vehicle of divine speech, she leaves largely unexplored how God’s authorship operates within and beyond human intention. Readers familiar with Vanhoozer’s The Drama of Doctrine (2005) or John Webster’s Holy Scripture: A Dogmatic Sketch (2003), may wish for deeper integration of pneumatology and doctrine of Scripture. For pastors teaching inspiration and illumination, supplementary theological resources will be needed.

b. Minimal Engagement with Global and Ecclesial Hermeneutics. Brown acknowledges non-Western voices in her preface but the body remains Western-centric. In multicultural ministry settings, leaders might want to pair her work with voices from African, Asian, or Latin American interpretive traditions to embody the “incarnational” principle she champions.

c. Genre Treatment Could Go Deeper. Her genre chapter sketches broad categories but sometimes smooths the edges. A pastor teaching Psalms or Revelation will need more detailed guidance on sub-genres and poetic devices. Those seeking recent treatments of the boundaries of genre would be well served with Andrew Judd’s Modern Genre Theory (2024). Still, her appendices help but feel more like summaries than workshops.

d. Reader Participation Underdeveloped. Though Brown affirms active engagement, she stops short of exploring communal interpretation—the church as corporate reader guided by the Spirit. The result is a strongly individual model of interpretation. For those in ecclesial contexts shaped by communal discernment (e.g., Anglican or Reformed traditions), this feels incomplete. Readers may be left searching for more on the history of biblical interpretation.

e. Style and Density. Despite her clarity, some mid-sections (especially chs. 3–4) are theory-heavy and may prove rugged terrain for volunteers or small-group leaders. Pastors may need to support their terms with ‘climbing aids’ as readers navigate those chapters.

Why It Matters for Pastors and Their Leaders

In many churches, “Bible reading” has drifted toward either devotional individualism or ideological fantasy. In some cases, the task of making sense of the bible has been surrendered to the immediate demands of culture. Brown offers a viable, rich and theologically informed direction for hermeneutics: reading as faithful conversation. Her communicative model teaches leaders to ask not merely what does this verse mean to me? but what is the author doing with these words—and how do I respond as one addressed?

This shift has immense pastoral payoff. It forms leaders who:

treat Scripture as dialogue rather than quarry;

value historical context without losing spiritual urgency;

see exegesis and listening as acts of discipleship;

and model humility before the text, the author, and ultimately God.

For pastor-theologians seeking to cultivate interpretive maturity in their congregations, Brown provides a conceptual map and a tone worth imitating. Her vision aligns naturally with teaching series’ on biblical literacy, leader training tracks, or bible-college “taster” reading groups.

Brown belongs to a generation of evangelical scholars (alongside Vanhoozer, Bartholomew, and Goheen) who have re-centred hermeneutics on communication rather than confrontation. In an age of suspicion toward meaning, she offers confidence without arrogance.

Her approach also carries ecumenical potential. Catholics, evangelicals, and mainliners alike can affirm that Scripture is divine discourse mediated through human authors. The model neither collapses meaning into reader response nor locks it behind the scholar’s gate. It invites listening communities—pastors, teachers, small-group leaders—to become responsive participants in God’s ongoing conversation with his people.

The Final Word

Scripture as Communication deserves its growing reputation as the best single-volume introduction to hermeneutics for pastors and serious lay leaders. It manages to be academically respectable, theologically sound, and pastorally usable—a rare trifecta!

Brown’s communicative model restores warmth and relationality to interpretation. Her insistence that listening to Scripture trains us to listen to people gives hermeneutics a moral dimension too often missing. At the same time, her framework provides enough theoretical scaffolding to prepare leaders for deeper study of meaning, language, and context.

If its theological integration is at times thin, and its genre discussions brisk, these are small blemishes, not signs of weakness. Brown has written a book that can be taught, not merely read—a text to gather teams around.

For pastors forming communities who love the Bible, Scripture as Communication offers both a method and a posture: read as listeners, interpret as participants, and teach as communicators of the God who still speaks.