Clarity of text

[Mary]

I find it difficult to know how to respond to people who believe they pick up the Scripture and the meaning of text is obvious. They assume they come to the text with no presuppositions as to what words mean, that for such folk they assume it means exactly the same to us in our megacities that it meant in the first reading in the Ancient Near Eastern world. And we are so blind as to how our theology shapes us before we read. This is combined with a lack of awareness of how much our concept of the truth is dominated by an attitude of certitude rather than a framing of humble love. This has led to a training of people as the "new young inquisitors". They are given key dangerous phrases - the new perspective on Paul". They have no idea of what the new perspective on Paul is but they seek to check whether you are orthodox or not. So they ask....a hermeneutic of suspicion

[Mary]

a hermeneutic of suspicion dominates....,

[Mary]

For this reason study of text is so important!!!!

[Bob]

As a rabbi friend of mine once told me, Jews tend to shake their heads at the notion that Christians can lift a single verse or pericope out of the text and claim to understand what it means. A Jewish reading of the text is always contextual, with rabbinic commentary close at hand. They also have a firmer grasp on the original language and, perhaps most importantly, they also engage the text as their formative story rather than as a manual of pithy sayings that point the way to eternal bliss. We have much to learn...