Some articles about ways to read texts

[Clark]

These post are by me as an individual, not as a moderator. They may be, to use the nice word, idiosyncratic.

Even though the readings here are not poetry I for one often do approach them in the way described in the following poem:

"Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

[Clark]

Here is a very short piece on the importance of identifying what kind of text it is you are reading. A fancy word for referring to some kinds of texts is "genre".

That author quotes another author, but that other article isn't there any more. Anyhow, the other author says,

'The Bible features many literary genres, including narrative (like Genesis), poetry (like Psalms and Song of Solomon), wisdom literature (like Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes) prophecy (the major and minor prophets), apocalyptic (like Revelation), parables (Jesus’ parables within the gospels) and epistles (the New Testament letters). Each genre serves different purposes, which the reader must keep in mind to correctly understand it.

'In the case of Proverbs, one needs to understand the genre of “wisdom literature” and, more specifically, the “proverb....”'

The principle applies not only to parts of the Bible but also to other texts, such as the ones we read here. Most of the texts read by the group so far are discursive arguments (extended, reasoned treatises). The Didache and the Didascalia aren't that. Evagrius on prayer is not that.