The Church and Postmodern Culture blog has a post up about interpretation. I'd love to get some of your thoughts about it.
Basically, it seems to me that they're arguing that the method we've been using is determined by/tied to modernism. In fact, the notion that interpretation is a method (implying scientific method) is modern terminology.
The method of which they speak is the one in which I've been trained--getting to the author's intent. You approach it this way: (1) observation, (2) interpretation, (3) application. You cannot have application without interpretation. Or another way to put it is (1) exegesis (what the author meant to his congregation), (2) theology (the transcendent meaning to all cultures), and (3) application (the significance for us). I think what they're arguing is that approaching it with solely the author's intent in mind both reduces Scripture to a science rather than living (in fact, I've heard others refer to it as taxonomy of doctrine) and is essentially egotistical (the idea that my interpretation over yours is right).
They don't mean to completely abandon the idea of author's intent, but to balance it with the idea of entering into the Scripture, of seeing it as a diaolgue. (You can't get rid of cultural and sociological studies any more than you can claim that we all just pick up our Hebrew/Aramaic/Greek books and understand what's being said.) It reminds me of N.T. Wright's "epistemology of love" (in Surprised by Hope).
For me, this problem is partly (mostly) resolved by seeing the Bible as myth--not as untrue legends or stories but as the story (and stories) of my identity. It shapes me, defines me. It explains my worldview. These are the stories of my people. These are the stories of my God. This is the story of origins and hope and future. I enter into this story. I'm part of it.
I do have a question though (a question with many questions): I agree that the method in which I've been trained arises from Enlightenment. My question is how does our interpretation now arise from postmodernism? Is that okay? Should we try to transcend it? Is that even possible? Or do we trust that God works within cultures?
What are your thoughts in how we approach the bible?
I didn't understand a bit of it. (:
your thoughts here are amazing. so potently distilled, so intelligently articulated. i got what the post was saying through your words, and i got what you were wrestling with through your questions.
what i didn't get, however, were any profound insights to add in. :)
i blame this on my waaaaay overtaxed brain from this month's school demands.
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