Re: Reading Genesis literally

 George is correct (as usual!) As C.S. Lewis said [perhaps quoting someone else] "Thoughts beyond their thoughts to those high bards were given."
 
But I also was thinking of some of the 'critical' approaches to Scripture. The traditional "literal" sense (i.e., the meaning of the original authors) would imply that detailed "critical" study is both necessary and a good thing. But historically (from the 19th century book Essays and Reviews to the Jesus Seminar) the overriding approach is that the meaning of the original author is the only legitimate meaning. This is clearly not the case for any written text (think Shakespeare) and certainly not for Scripture -- as the Church has always recognized. Even though non-literal uses can be abused, as the Reformers pointed out rather vociferously, that doesn't mean we have to toss out the baby with the bathwater. Scripture authors themselves were constantly expanding and building on and reinterpreting earlier Scripture, e.g., Ezekiel on part of Genesis, Jesus (as presented by the Gospel writers) reinterpreting the Law, etc. And for a modern approach to retrieve the "typologi
 cal" interpretation of Scripture (which was prevalent for well over a millenium in the Church), see theologian Ephraim Radner's book Hope Among the Fragments.
 
Karl
*************
Karl V. Evans
cmekve@aol.com
 
-----Original Message-----
From: George Murphy <gmurphy@raex.com>
To: cmekve@aol.com; williamehamiltonjr@yahoo.com
Cc: asa@calvin.edu
Sent: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 16:44:50 -0400
Subject: Re: Reading Genesis literally

Karl's last sentence below refers (I think) to what has traditionally been called the sensus plenior of a text. There can be such a "fuller sense" of a text even from a merely human author. (Dorothy Sayers gives a good example from her own work in The Mind of the Maker.) & if we believe that the Holy Spirit is involved in a distinctive the development of biblical texts then we shouldn't be too surprised if there is sometimes more in them than their human authors intended.
 
Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
----- Original Message -----
From: cmekve@aol.com
To: williamehamiltonjr@yahoo.com
Cc: asa@calvin.edu
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2006 3:15 PM
Subject: Re: Reading Genesis literally

 It's important to keep in mind that what the Church (including Augustine) has traditionally meant by "literal" is the meaning that the original authors intended. This is very different from what American evangelicals (both YEC and non-YEC) mean by the term. Note also that the full meaning of Scripture can and does exceed the "literal meaning".
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Received on Tue Apr 25 10:57:07 2006