I have a paper due this week and so don’t have the necessary time to put into a thoughtful entry. But, I thought I would put some questions out there to hear from you as I am thinking about an entry down the road. The questions have to do with interpretation of God’s Word (and yes, I do believe that it is inspired by God).
How does Scripture function so that there is a normative (agreed upon) understanding, thus allowing Christians to assess the validity of varying interpretations?
i.e. what are you principles of interpretation?
How do you determine what is acceptable and what is unacceptable?
What assumptions to you make about the text without even realizing it?
Look forward to hearing your introspection.
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1 comment:
Good questions Sam.
I just let the traditions of the chruch of my birth guide me. Obviously, if God wanted me to believe differently, he would have had me born into a different spiritual tradition.
Seriously, I have struggled with these thoughts a lot. As I have shared in a previous post, Alexander Campbell based his belief in Christian unity around being unified in their methods of interpreting Scripture. He argued that we cannot have unity of theology and practice without a unity of interpretation.
I believe in the authority of Scripture in all areas that it addresses with proper interpretation coming through an understanding of the author's original meaning to the original audience.
That's my answer in a nutshell. I know it does not answer all of the questions you posed. It's what I would say if someone put a gun to my head or just asked the question on the internet. Thanks for not using the gun.
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