This beautiful quotation comes from Richard B. Hays, a professor of New Testament at Duke and one of the foremost Wesleyan Biblical scholars of our time:
"No reading of Scripture can be legitimate, then, if it fails to shape the readers into a community that embodies the love of God as shown forth in Christ. This criterion slashes away all frivolous or self-serving readings, all readings that aggrandize the interpreter, all merely clever readings. True interpretation of Scripture leads us into unqualified giving of our lives in service within the community whose vocation is to reenact the obedience of the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. Community in the likeness of Christ is cruciform; therefore right interpretation must be cruciform."
-Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul, p. 191
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5 comments:
Jackson,
Have you read Hay's book on ethics? You would like it, especially in regards to your post on situational ethics.
Matt Purmort
Hey Matt-
I think your talking of the "Moral Vision of the New Testament"? I've read parts of it - its fabulous.
That's the one!
Matt Purmort
What eactly is "right" interpretation? Such a definition inevitably leads to division, conflict and the dreadful politics of the scapegoat.
How many millions were slaughtered in the post-Reformation "religious" wars over differing interpretations of the scriptures?
I think "right" interpretation is exactly what Hays said - interpretation that shapes the readers into a community that embodies the love of God. This "right" interpretation would form people into people who would turn the other cheek, not who would kill over different interpretations. The actions you refer to, Anon, in referencing the religious wars, are the first signs that the participants were not interpreting right, wouldn't you say?
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