Interpretation

I've been working on some reading for my classes today (though not as much as I should have been, I must admit the three day weekend has lessened my motivation for working ahead). I must be a super-geek because I am about to highly recommend a couple of textbooks to you all, how can I be excited about textbooks? I don't know but I am. The first is called Historical Theology: An Introduction to the History of Christian Thought, which I found utterly fascinating. I don't know what else to say other than that I wish I'd read it years ago. It's so weird that the same things and questions we delve into today have been delved into before, and often other believers have found some decent answers. The church has already faced some serious challenges, and sometimes it's failed in the face of them. I think maybe we can do better if we at least see some of the mistakes that have occured in the past.

The other book is Introduction to Bilblical Interpretation, I know this probably sounds boring but seriously it's not at all so far. A lot of the questions I think we began to examine in our Bible study last spring and summer are addressed to some degree in this book, and I'm still reading it so I'll have more to write on it soon. Some of those questions of 'Why can't (or why doesn't) the Holy Spirit just illuminate every believer so that we understand Scripture in the same way, i.e., the way it was meant to be understood?' or just the general frustration that studying some passages can lead to, when it doesn't seem at all like God's word is clear or that we have all we need to understand it adequately, even though we know He's not trying to trick us or make things harder than they need to be. Anyways, I'm including a couple of quotes from this latter book, and will probably try and do this on occasion with things I'm learning in and out of class, just to share stuff that I find interesting/inspiring/disturbing/whatevering.

“Any type of oral or written communication involves three expressions of meaning:
(1) what the speaker or writer meant by what he or she said;
(2) what the recipient actually understood by the statement; and
(3) in some abstract sense, what meaning is actually encodes in the text or utterance itself.”

"To grasp the text fully—and, more important, to be grasped by it fully—means to enjoy the ‘pleasure of the text,’ to engage it joyfully and adventurously with our mind, emotions, and imagination.”

“When we simply allow our unchallenged feelings and observations to distort or determine what the Bible means, our experiences have become the measure for what a text can mean. We must adopt an approach to interpretation that confronts this danger, for Scripture alone constitutes the standard of truth for Christians, and we must judge our values and experiences based on its precepts, not vice-versa. It follows, then, that any valid approach to interpretation must concern itself with two crucial dimensions:
(1) an appropriate methodology for deciphering what the text is about, and
(2) a means of assessing and accounting for the readers’ present situation as we engage in the interpretive process. We must account for both ancient and modern dimensions.”

I guess I'm certainly interested in this last part as some of you probably know my frustration when I see what is written and can't line it up with what is. Anyways, I ought to get back to studying, but figured I should continue trying to blog on a semi-regular basis.