Balance

In conservative circles it's common to hear that we should allow our views to be informed by scripture and not by experience - especially when the interpretation of scripture itself is in view. Most people 'get' the point, and think they know what it means.

But as I've said below, in terms of its expression, this view collapses into meaninglessness in the real world. There is no useful dichotomy between reading scripture and experience. And this is a problem, because any decent philosophy student would be able to shake the foundations of a bible-believing Christian with a fairly straightforward argument. And they do.

The important thrust of the point is that scripture ought to anchor and inform us, not only in our interpretation of scripture itself, but in our general opinions. But how can we put it so that our bible-believing son or daughter, at university for the first time, can defend their tradition?

I suggest that it is not pitting the bible against experience, but pitting one experience of the bible against another that will help. The alternative experiences I have in mind are

1. a deep grasp of the historical origins and meaning of the text, within a community that itself brings the text alive, and

2. a thoughtless reading straight-off-the-page that pours into the text whatever contemporary meanings it finds lying around.

What the conservative view attempts to capture with its appeal to 'scripture' is in fact a particular hermeneutic. What it needs to avoid is the impression of a somehow magical (because it is beyond or outside experience) process of reading scripture per se. And so, what it needs to emphasize when making the point is proper receptivity to the original meaning of the text, within a contemporary lived expression of the text.

Of course, there are a whole range of difficulties employing such a hermeneutic. We cannot easily divorce our contemporary experience-infused meanings from ourselves, so that when we read the text we are reading it 'authentically', as if we were a person of the time. But that is the subject for another post.

As our bible-believing sons and daughters deal with these issues (and they will face them), it is good for them to be able to employ categories and responses that are not seen either as unthinking dogma or as superstitions, but rather as the clear reflection of an attractive, deeply satisfying (intellectually, emotionally, physically) way of looking at the world. It is even better if others conclude that they'd love to be part of that kind of world.