Distinguished philosopher Giorgio Agamben offers an archaeological inquiry into the problem of scriptural interpretation. 

The problem of interpreting Scripture—above all, sacred scripture, but ultimately any form of writing—coincides with the very history of Western culture. It is no surprise, then, that an archaeological inquiry such as the one proposed here—on the problem of interpretation from Origen to Auerbach, from the Talmud to Benjamin—might hold unexpected revelations.

Essential reading for scholars of theology, religious studies, and hermeneutics interested in the history of scriptural interpretation, The Spirit and the Letter highlights how the interpretation of Scripture reveals itself as inseparable from ethics and politics.
 

Giorgio Agamben is a philosopher and writer whose works have been translated and studied worldwide. His Homo Sacer project marked a turning point in contemporary political thought. Scott Kirkland is a scholar of political theology, philosophy, and theological ethics and serves as Research Coordinator in the Theological School of Trinity College, University of Melbourne. He is the author of Into the Far Country: Karl Barth and the Modern Subject and co-author of the Guide to Eschatology.

I. Scribes
II. The Exchanged Keys
III. Atalanta Fugiens
IV. Sacred Philology
V. Guiding Errors
VI. As in an Emblem
VII. In Dreams and in Wakefulness
VIII. Writing and Life
IX. Beatrice