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Posts Tagged: interpretation
August 24, 2009
Introduction to Hermeneutics: Everything is an Interpretation
An Inner Metro Green Sermon Series
We started talking about hermeneutics this morning at our community’s Sunday gathering. This is going to be a fun series. It’s an important one too. Why? Simply put, the life of faith is shaped, informed and continuously nurtured by interpretation, be it for good or for ill. Our hermeneutic affects our approach to the life, neighbors, spirituality and faith. Our hermeneutic speaks volumes about our faith and our understanding of faith. Read more…
August 17, 2009
Hermeneutics: Everything is an Interpretation
An Inner Metro Green Sermon Series
“Hermeneutics: Everything is an Interpretation” is the title of a brand new sermon series by Shawn Anthony that starts on Sunday, August 23rd @ Inner Metro Green in Lancaster City, PA. Read more…
July 28, 2009
Certeau’s Perpetual Eruption of Inquietude
Michel de Certeau (1925-1986) is fascinating. His life’s work is as deep as it is broad. I am only beginning to dive into it and most of the material I am sifting through regarding the man is not primary. I’ll get to those primary sources as soon as time and money permit. Meanwhile, I’ll say this: The material I am engaging provokes much thought. In fact, Certeau’s intellectual project could be a catalyst for a lot of serious work in Christian theology (his work is already important in postmodern theory, obviously) if only more people were familiar with it. Unfortunately, so many of us are so focused upon distractions and the wrong questions that we miss the really big theological questions Certeau openly asked during his existence. We would do well to wrestle with more of his work. Certeau’s intellectual framework was erected upon a multi-disciplinary approach that included anthropology, economics, linguistics, philosophy, history, psychology and theology. A work founded upon such big and broad vision will have some staying power. The questions it raised are not going away anytime soon. Certeau was painting a big picture. He was looking for universal threads. He may have found a few. The question is, what are we going to do with them? Maybe we should pull one of those threads and unravel a sweater or two? Perhaps. Read more…
July 27, 2009
On Seeing Something Spectacular
John 5:39-40 (The Message) “You have your heads in your Bibles constantly because you think you’ll find eternal life there. But you miss the forest for the trees. These Scriptures are all about me! And here I am, standing right before you, and you aren’t willing to receive from me the life you say you want.
When our three children were really young my wife and I would spend days searching high and low for the most exciting and outrageous and colorful and cool presents that we could find for them. When we finally found the perfect gifts for them we would snatch that luminous loot from otherwise ordinary store shelves in a flash! It was almost as if we feared that some other couple might discover our little secret. We’d rush to the register with our treasure in hand and there we’d stake our claim with a quick slide of a debit card. No one else else was going to beat us to it. We would then take our precious cache home and decorate it with the most colorful and playful wrapping paper that we could find. Then, when it was time for our kids to have them, we would parade our gifts around the living room with all the pomp and circumstance that we could muster. When this almost tribal display ran its course, we’d hand our gifts to our kids with the most ridiculous and overexaggerated smiles stretched across our faces. Read more…
June 25, 2009
A Division in Biblical Studies
Interpretive Smackdown: Historical-Critical vs. Literary-Critical
A fascinating article concerning the contentious gulf separating Historical-Critical and Postmodern interpretations of the Bible appears in the Summer 2009 edition of Journal of Biblical Literature (JBL). It seems that, according to the article, the Biblical Studies department is divided on interpretive issues. On one hand, we have those who would advance the modern idea of one ultimate or final reading of the text(s) that is discovered via the interpretive paradigm aka the Historical-Critical approach (source criticism, form criticism, grammatical studies and archaeology); on the other hand we have the postmodern interpretive venture – or literary-critical method – that suggests an availability of several divergent but equally plausible readings that are produced by a variety of experiences, voices and, more importantly, the metanarrative void (Postcolonial Readings, Feminist Readings, Marxist Readings, Black (African-American) Readings, Hermeneutic of Suspicion, Rhetorical Criticism, Stylistic Criticism, Metaphorical Criticism, Post-structuralism, and Myth Theory, to name just a few). Read more…
May 19, 2009
On Symbolism and Interpretation
Occasionally, some of the comments I receive on this blog are what I call “post worthy.” Said differently, sometimes a reader’s comment is so interesting that it is promoted to a full post for everyone to enjoy. It rarely happens, but it does happen occasionally. The comment below is that sort of interesting. When I first received the following comment I was struck silly by an almost “Are you kidding me?!?” sort of vibe, but then, and after a few minutes of thought, I realized there is a lesson in this comment about symbols and our interpretation of symbols and the effect our interpretations can have upon our subsequent/consequent thoughts and actions. Read more…
March 2, 2009
Why Would God Ask Us To Do That?
Is it our job to differentiate between the divine and human aspects/nature of scripture? Some think this is NOT our job; I think it IS our job! Some might even ask, “Why would God ask us to do that?” I’d simply say because God must! It – the differentiation – is an unavoidable part of the Incarnation, and thus an unavoidable characteristic of our expressions of faith and God. When we then choose to record these expressions of faith and God that result from our real-time engagement of the Incarnation, then we literally become characters in the drama and bring all of our character traits with us into the story. This creates the very real need for those who will enter the story in the future to actually differentiate between all that the people from the past have brought to the story and the revelation of God. This is all about the Incarnation. The Incarnation is not a one time even in history; it is a perpetual state of existence for those of us who believe in the living Christ. The Incarnation is something each of us as followers of Christ engage and enter every single day of our lives. The really interesting thing in all of this is that the the Incarnation is something offered to each of us right where we are immediately living in time, space, and history. In other words, God meets us right where we are, culturally. And we express this event in language and understanding shaped and nearly limited to our cultural setting. And by grace, God meets us all there and lovingly guides us and accepts our worship in spite of our seriously limited and culturally informed expressions of God’s self. Amazing! Read more…