Hermeneutics and Ignorance

There are various ways to interpret religious texts or narratives. What I often find is that many people simply read the texts without a critical thought and they simply ingest them and then regurgitate whatever parts they feel are relevant or for which they are passionate about. This of course leads to extreme views and hotly debated interpretations. Very often the most vehement of these arguments are instigated through ignorance or a lack of critical assessment. What takes the place of knowledge in these cases are more often than not, a belief, not based upon critical assessment or philosophical discussion, but passion or simply because we were told what to believe due to cultural influence, sort of like a herd of sheep.

For example, in terms of Christian hermeneutics, the Catholic Church asserts the upmost importance upon biblical interpretation. This allows for an openness of interpretation as long as it stays within the Catholic Church’s theological tradition and norms. In these terms, theological factors set the necessary parameters for interpreting the scripture that Catholics then read as the pure word of God. Such parameters disallow differing interpretations such as found in the Protestant method, as well as other viewpoints or interpretations by individuals etc..

How do you approach these texts? Are they simply a birthright or part of your culture and therefore unquestioned? or perhaps you approach them in the same way one would read any other text? Just wondering and thank you.

evenpath said:

There are various ways to interpret religious texts or narratives. What I often find is that many people simply read the texts without a critical thought and they simply ingest them and then regurgitate whatever parts they feel are relevant or for which they are passionate about. This of course leads to extreme views and hotly debated interpretations. Very often the most vehement of these arguments are instigated through ignorance or a lack of critical assessment. What takes the place of knowledge in these cases are more often than not, a belief, not based upon critical assessment or philosophical discussion, but passion or simply because we were told what to believe due to cultural influence, sort of like a herd of sheep.

For example, in terms of Christian hermeneutics, the Catholic Church asserts the upmost importance upon biblical interpretation. This allows for an openness of interpretation as long as it stays within the Catholic Church’s theological tradition and norms. In these terms, theological factors set the necessary parameters for interpreting the scripture that Catholics then read as the pure word of God. Such parameters disallow differing interpretations such as found in the Protestant method, as well as other viewpoints or interpretations by individuals etc..

How do you approach these texts? Are they simply a birthright or part of your culture and therefore unquestioned? or perhaps you approach them in the same way one would read any other text? Just wondering and thank you.

Click to expand...

Nice post. I was all about theology and all of the man doctrines at one point, until I realized that none of it made sense and I earnestly wanted answers to all of the division and to know the one truth.
I approached God with the "I'm an idiot and it's impossible to know your ways by my own understanding or any other man's. Teach me, make me low and increase you, remove the "I" and the "me" and everything this mind has been conditioned with. Still and open mind. Teach me no matter what I have to sacrifice, no matter if it's me against the world. Mediated on God and only God for a year. No television, no distractions. Patience. Answers come.

Things written by the Spirit of God are far beyond comprehension for the most naturally intelligent man or woman. It's a much deeper and higher conscious of spiritual meaning behind it all. Takes the Spirit within to teach the Spirit. Everything being taught was oneness and one truth amongst all of mankind. My inner self. Seeing within me. Seeing and knowing things unseen and unknown. My dual nature. The Spirit within me and myself within me. The myself had to go. That's the sacrifice. Lost everything I came to know, but to lose is to gain in God, and the blessings and peace and love of mind and heart is a treasure worth ridding of anything for. Complete oneness and trust in God and nothing of myself. It takes a brave and humble approach. The ego and reputation wants to hold on and fight. Just must surrender. One must decrease and He must increase.
The experience now and knowing God and the one truth is more priceless and beautiful than anything. A desire I wish all can have and experience.
Spiritual things are always folly by the natural. It's in no way a history lesson or literal or physical in any way. Its all internal and within ... Which are spiritual things... The things not seen and known. One thinks they can find spiritual truth by history and literal and physical and outward vain things is completely mistaken. Natural isn't spiritual and spiritual isn't natural. A great spirit and a great mind will always conflict. Things of God need taught by God. That is by completely removing the "I" and "me" and everything we think we know.... Because it's always wrong.

evenpath said:

There are various ways to interpret religious texts or narratives. What I often find is that many people simply read the texts without a critical thought and they simply ingest them and then regurgitate whatever parts they feel are relevant or for which they are passionate about. This of course leads to extreme views and hotly debated interpretations. Very often the most vehement of these arguments are instigated through ignorance or a lack of critical assessment. What takes the place of knowledge in these cases are more often than not, a belief, not based upon critical assessment or philosophical discussion, but passion or simply because we were told what to believe due to cultural influence, sort of like a herd of sheep.


For example, in terms of Christian hermeneutics, the Catholic Church asserts the upmost importance upon biblical interpretation. This allows for an openness of interpretation as long as it stays within the Catholic Church’s theological tradition and norms. In these terms, theological factors set the necessary parameters for interpreting the scripture that Catholics then read as the pure word of God. Such parameters disallow differing interpretations such as found in the Protestant method, as well as other viewpoints or interpretations by individuals etc..


How do you approach these texts? Are they simply a birthright or part of your culture and therefore unquestioned? or perhaps you approach them in the same way one would read any other text? Just wondering and thank you.

Click to expand...

Fabulous post. There are a number of verses that teach us how we should approach the scripture in general. 2 Peter 1-20-21 say that scripture never had its origin in the will of man, and was not brought about by the Prophet's own interpretation. Since the profits did not interpret Scripture, then we would be wise not to do so either. Instead we ought to seek the authors' original intent. Peter said we will do well to pay attention to it, which is different than interpreting. The written message itself often gives much different meaning then the different interpretations that follow. John 12:48-50 shows Jesus's attitude that he did not want to alter God's message through him to the world in any way. Acts 17:10-11 showed how the Bereans checked the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was true, so then we should do this even with our most trusted preachers sometimes. Paul was pretty trustworthy. Matthew 15:1-9 shows us that we should make sure that what we believe is based on Scripture, so that we don't end up unwittingly following false traditions. The only way to differentiate between the two, is that God's Word is a written explicitly. (Of course I mean only traditions that conflict with God's word, not all traditions are bad.)


These scriptures and others are the basis from which I approach God's word. It takes practice to get used to learning from God's Word in this fashion.


In today's Christianity, there are a number of principles, in addition to the ones you've mentioned, that really proliferate the variety of beliefs.


1. A given belief does not necessarily have to be written in scriptures, as long as the concept is there. Like seeing shapes in the clouds, it completely leaves these "concepts", up to the beholder.

2. Concatenation - Joining disparate scriptures together without any rhyme or reason, except for that it supports a preconceived belief system. Otherwise, it has no internal consistency.

3. Plucking a verse out of it's surround passage which already explains it, and building a new doctrine around it.

4. My favorite, finding a verse that has one or two words that coincide with a preconceived belief system, and using it as a support, even the the whole verse may say something different.

And several more.

Unification said:

Nice post. I was all about theology and all of the man doctrines at one point, until I realized that none of it made sense and I earnestly wanted answers to all of the division and to know the one truth.
I approached God with the "I'm an idiot and it's impossible to know your ways by my own understanding or any other man's. Teach me, make me low and increase you, remove the "I" and the "me" and everything this mind has been conditioned with. Still and open mind. Teach me no matter what I have to sacrifice, no matter if it's me against the world. Mediated on God and only God for a year. No television, no distractions. Patience. Answers come.

Things written by the Spirit of God are far beyond comprehension for the most naturally intelligent man or woman. It's a much deeper and higher conscious of spiritual meaning behind it all. Takes the Spirit within to teach the Spirit. Everything being taught was oneness and one truth amongst all of mankind. My inner self. Seeing within me. Seeing and knowing things unseen and unknown. My dual nature. The Spirit within me and myself within me. The myself had to go. That's the sacrifice. Lost everything I came to know, but to lose is to gain in God, and the blessings and peace and love of mind and heart is a treasure worth ridding of anything for. Complete oneness and trust in God and nothing of myself. It takes a brave and humble approach. The ego and reputation wants to hold on and fight. Just must surrender. One must decrease and He must increase.
The experience now and knowing God and the one truth is more priceless and beautiful than anything. A desire I wish all can have and experience.
Spiritual things are always folly by the natural. It's in no way a history lesson or literal or physical in any way. Its all internal and within ... Which are spiritual things... The things not seen and known. One thinks they can find spiritual truth by history and literal and physical and outward vain things is completely mistaken. Natural isn't spiritual and spiritual isn't natural. A great spirit and a great mind will always conflict. Things of God need taught by God. That is by completely removing the "I" and "me" and everything we think we know.... Because it's always wrong.

Click to expand...

Teach me no matter what I have to sacrifice, no matter if it's me against the world. Mediated on God and only God for a year. No television, no distractions. Patience. Answers come.

Wow, I respect that.

evenpath said:

For example, in terms of Christian hermeneutics, the Catholic Church asserts the upmost importance upon biblical interpretation. This allows for an openness of interpretation as long as it stays within the Catholic Church’s theological tradition and norms. In these terms, theological factors set the necessary parameters for interpreting the scripture that Catholics then read as the pure word of God. Such parameters disallow differing interpretations such as found in the Protestant method, as well as other viewpoints or interpretations by individuals etc..

How do you approach these texts? Are they simply a birthright or part of your culture and therefore unquestioned? or perhaps you approach them in the same way one would read any other text? Just wondering and thank you.

Click to expand...

I think that "Catholic perspective" of reading Scripture is out of date. Yes, for a long time, the Catholic Church played catch-up to protestant study. However the SBL even elected Fernando Segovia, a Liberation Theologian, as its president.

Scripture interpretation is contextual. Exegesis is not. I offer that your view of Catholic scripture study is outdated, and while it may have taken some time to catch up, critical methods of approaching Scripture are fairly new, in the overall timespan of Christianity.

VitoOFMCap said:

I think that "Catholic perspective" of reading Scripture is out of date. Yes, for a long time, the Catholic Church played catch-up to protestant study. However the SBL even elected Fernando Segovia, a Liberation Theologian, as its president.

Scripture interpretation is contextual. Exegesis is not. I offer that your view of Catholic scripture study is outdated, and while it may have taken some time to catch up, critical methods of approaching Scripture are fairly new, in the overall timespan of Christianity.

Click to expand...

They're not new, they were forgotten.