Saturday, June 25, 2005
More quotes
Some selections from The Theological Interpretation of Scripture: Classic and Contemporary Readings edited by Stephen E. Fowl...

  • “The Church’s identity and mission have always depended on Christians’ abilities to interpret scripture theologically, to engage in debate over both how to interpret scripture and how to embody such interpretations in specific contexts, and to form members of the body of Christ to be wise readers of scripture” (xiv).

    --from Stephen J. Fowl’s “Introduction” to The Theological Interpretation of Scripture.


  • “It cannot be doubted that the literal meaning also comes from the Holy Spirit; every true scriptural meaning is inspired, and inspiration is unique. Still in all, we have not completely perceived the intention of the Spirit as long as we have failed to penetrate to the deepest level. And if we deliberately stop short of that intention, we have been unfaithfrul to it… Since the spiritual meaning, as the meaning of things, is not bestowed upon them by the human author of a book, it stems totally from the Spirit” (12).

    --from “Spiritual Understanding” by Henri de Lubac.


  • “The medieval theory of levels of meaning in the biblical text, with all its undoubted defects, flourished because it is true, while the modern theory of a single meaning, with all its demonstrable virtues, is false” (37).

    --from “The Superiority of Pre-Critical Exegesis” by David C. Steinmetz.


  • “These and other songs [i.e., African-American spirituals], as well as numerous sermons, addresses, and exhortations, reflect a hermeneutic characterized by a looseness, even playfulness, vis-à-vis the biblical texts themselves. The interpretation was not controlled by the literal words of the texts, but by social experience. The texts were heard more than read; they were engaged as stories that seized and free the imagination” (76)

    --from “The Bible and African Americans” by Vincent L. Wimbush.


  • “Literary critics have, indeed, often recognized the primacy of the work of art, which interprets the critic rather than being interpreted by the critic, as the following remark shows: ‘The first demand any work of any art makes upons us is surrender. Look. Listen. Receive. Get yourself out of the way’” (212).

    --from “Selections from I, He, We, They: A Literary Approach to Isaiah 53” by David J. A. Clines.


  • “No one wants to claim that there are no other servants of the Lord except this one of Isaiah 53, that this poemparable is the only glimpse we have of the reality of servanthood and with his suffering reproaching our easy activisms” (217).

    --from “Selections from I, He, We, They: A Literary Approach to Isaiah 53” by David J. A. Clines.

    • posted by Peter at 11:22 AM
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