Some Hermeutical Thoughts - Location of Meaning

For those of you not familiar with the term 'hermeneutics', it is the philosophy and method of interpreting a text. It is often used in reference to biblical interpretation and that is the subject of interetst for this post.

A few months ago I discovered that there was a movement within Christianity that opposed using sources outside of the Bible in efforts to interpret the Bible. Essentially they think the Bible should be read as it is and so there is no need to bring in any historical and contextual information from the time and place that a certain book of the Bible was written. I think that view stands on shaky ground. In this next series of posts I hope to explain my view on hermeneutics and in so doing refute the position that denies the value of extra-biblical information in the interpretative process.

Our discussion starts at the location of meaning. In other words, when we read the Bible do we look for the authors intent, do we just let the text speak for itself, or does the reader create there own meaning as they read?

Location of Meaning

Author

When we look to the author for meaning we ask the question, what meaning did the author have in mind when they wrote the text? What did they intend to communicate to their anticipated audience? When we look for meaning here we take into account the cultural and historical setting of the author in order to try to see the world through their eyes as best we can. Then we read the text from the author's perspective, trying to understand what they meant and intended to communicate in that text.

The challenge with this approach is that we can’t get into the full psyche of the biblical authors because they are no longer around to interview. On top of that, a reader cannot fully escape their own cultural and historical perspective. No matter how much I learn about Paul's world and his thought patterns, I will still not escpae my perspective. I can get closer to see the world through his eyes, but I will still be looking through my eyes before I look through his.

Text

This view says 'just let the text speak by itself.' Look at the literary structures and interpret it based on the text alone. According to this view you shouldn't worry about what the author intended because you will never be able to see the world from the author's perspective. Subscribing to this perspective might drive a hermeneutical approach that de-values information external to the Bible.

The problem with this is that meaning must be created by a person. There is no meaning to a text outside of a person’s assignment of meaning. So if we say we only look to the text as its own independent entity for meaning, then we really end up with the reader assigning meaning to the text. This ultimately leads to the same problems that a reader locus of meaning runs into as discussed below.

Reader

In this approach meaning is created by the reader. We do not need to be concerned about discerning what the author intended, because the only discernable (and some might say only valuable) meaning is that which the reader assigns as they read a text. This could also be described by the phrase, “whatever the text means to you.” This is another hermeneutical perspective that could de-value extra-biblical information.

This vew leads to a couple of problems. 1) It leaves the door open for multiple mutually exclusive interpretations since multiple readers will invariably assign different meanings to the same text. How then does a community of believers reconcile these contradictory readings? 2) It eliminates the possibility for communication because the reader is not actually receiving external information, but is regurgitation their own thoughts and experiences in their interpretation.

In terms of Biblical interpretation, there is no way for the Christian who locates meaning in the reader's response to be shaped and formed by external information (i.e. meanings), so then a person is only influencing themselves as they read the Bible. Certainly the Holy Spirit can still shape the reader, but then there is little special about scripture since the Holy Spirit can shape the believer when they read any text.

Looking to the Author through their Text

We Must acknowledge that our access to the author’s intent is limited since we cannot get into the full psyche of the author. However, Instead of ignoring the author, who is our only hope for finding meaning external to the reader, we need to look to them for meaning more carefully and with a sense of humility. We must acknowledge that we cannot fully enter their perspective, but be satisifed with getting as close to their perspective as we can.

Taking on the view of the author (as best we can) and reading their text is the only window we have into the author’s intent. Knowing that, we have to hold our interpretations with a degree of tentativeness appropriate for the degree of ambiguity in a text. Doing anything but looking to the author's intended meaning in the text leaves us looking into a mirror with little chance at being formed by a source external to our own minds. So, we look for the author’s meaning as it is inscribed in the text. That is the Bible student’s task.