Last week I wrote about paying attention to your own insights in reading the Bible. That now concerns me a little since it might imply that one’s own private Biblical interpretation is to be preferred to anything anyone else teaches. That’s not the point I wanted to make. I think Biblical interpretation is something that should take place within the community of the church. It involves my understandings, to be sure, but also that of others. We have to include what tradition has handed on to us. We have to consider the views of those who make Biblical study their primary vocation. We have to include the wisdom of the elderly and the fresh insight of the young.

I think everything in the church needs this kind of communal give and take. I find Father William Shannon’s comment on this valuable.

“Dialogue has as its goal a sharing of the truth. It is not just that I want to share my truth with another. It is also that I want to share the truth the other has that I do not have.”*

Dialogue in interpreting the Bible is important. For years I attended the Society of Biblical Literature. There were numerous sections on various topics usually with several papers presented followed by discussion. This give and take was the way understanding was promoted.

Dialogue is essential in the Christian life. I am deprived if I won’t listen to someone else’s view, and they are deprived if they won’t listen to me. There’s great value in finding many meanings.

Read James 3:17 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne

*Silence on Fire, p. 64.