A Catholic Introduction to Biblical Interpretation
By John Gresham
The World Within the Text (Literary Context)
LITERARY
CRITICAL METHOD
Description / Justification / Limitations / Tools / Application
Description of the method:
The literary approach to scriptural interpretation is best understood in contrast to the historical approach. The literary approach is unconcerned with the world behind the text. The concern for "history" is replaced by a concern for "story" and "narrative." This approach does not ask, "what really happened in history?" but rather, "What happens in the biblical narrative?" and "What do these events mean in that narrative?" The focus is on the world within the text itself. The literary interpreters of the Bible argue that any work of literature creates a world. The reader enters into the world created by that text, the world of that story. Meaning of the text is found within the world created by its story, not in whatever events in the author's life led to the writing of that story. Whereas the historical critic views the biblical text as an historical artifact to be interpreted historically, the literary critic views the biblical text as a work of literature to be analyzed according to literary methods.
Examples of literary criticism include narrative criticism, rhetorical criticism, reader response criticism and structuralism.
Narrative criticism focuses on biblical narrative, analyzing plot, sequence and timing of events, characterization, and the use of literary techniques such as irony, humor, and repetition as ways of developing the story and its significant themes.
Rhetorical criticism uses classical rhetorical theory to analyze argumentative techniques within the biblical writings, giving attention to how the author uses style, language, emotion, and logic to persuade the reader.
Structuralism reads the biblical writings in light of universal literary structures, interpreting biblical characters, themes and events in terms of their roles and functions within a certain structural grid or universal grammar.
Reader Response criticism analyzes the biblical text in light of the experience of the reader, interpreting the text in light of the questions, expectations, surpises the reader experiences proceeding through the text, emphasizing the active role of the reader in determining the meaning of the text.
Justification for the literary critical method
The literary approach to scripture has arisen as a corrective or even reaction to the modern predominance of the historical critical method. The historical approach is faulted for focusing on a reconstructed history behind the text and thereby missing the multi-layered meanings resident within the text. Literary critics take seriously the literary form of the biblical writings. Narrative, they argue is not history (especially in the modern sense of history).
Catholic teaching affirms the importance of the literary form of scripture. Divine revelation in the Bible is given in diverse literary forms and proper interpretation of that revelation must give due attention to the literary genre of any particular biblical passage and use interpretive methods appropriate to that specific form of literature. In the words of the Vatican II Constitution on Divine Revelation:
To search out the intention of the sacred writers, attention should be given, among other things, to "literary norms." For truth is set forth and expressed differently in texts which are variously historical, prophetic, poetic or of other forms of discourse. (Dei Verbum 12)
This recognition of the importance of the literary forms of biblical revelation provides justification for the use of specifically literary methods of interpretation.
Among the literary forms of scripture, narrative is of special importance to Christian faith -- from the narratives of Israel's history to the gospel narratives. The continuing importance of narrative is illustrated by the significance of the stories of saints in Catholic life. Indeed the creed itself has a certain narrative structure which begins with creation, centers on a brief narrative reciting the coming of Christ in the midst of history and points toward the conclusion of the narrative in the life of the world to come. Narrative theologians emphasize how the remembrance and celebration of the Christian "story" forms the Christian community. The historical interpretation too often reduced the rich biblical narrative to a source for the interpreter's reconstruction of history. Literary techniques, not only provide approaches appropriate to the literary form of biblical narrative, they provide a way of reading the text that grasps the role of narrative in the life of the believing community.
Limitations of the literary-critical method
There are two important reservations, the Catholic exegete must exercise toward literary approaches to the biblical text.
First, is a rejection of an ahistorical bias found in some literary criticism. The literary scholar's interest in the world within the text sometimes leads to a complete disinterest in the world behind the text, the events in history to which the narrative bears witness. Catholic incarnational faith affirms the Divine presence active in the world, in history, that is in our world, not merely the world created by a literary text. Biblical narratives such as the gospels do not convey merely fictional events but events which, according to the witness of faith, occurred in human history.
Second, one should exercise caution in regard to the subjectivity of literary interpretations. Literary interpretations allow for a great deal of creativity on the part of the interpreter. This creativity can contribute insights, but it can also lead to arbitrary misinterpretations, especially where interpretation proceeds with complete disregard for authorial intent and historical context.
Books of the Bible, edited by Bernhard Anderson (Scribners) is a two volume reference work providing a literary introduction to each book of the Bible.
A helpful (though not up-to-date) guide to commentaries, articles and other works which take literary approaches to biblical texts is Mark Minor's Literary-Critical Approaches to the Bible: An Annotated Bibliography and the sequel Literary-Critical Approaches to the Bible; A Bibliographical Supplement ( Locust Hill Press)Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. Leland Ryken (InterVarsity) explains biblical images, symbols and metaphors. See also, A Complete Literary Guide to the Bible. Ed. by Leland Ryken and Tremper Longman III. (Zondervan)
Commentaries which emphasize a literary approach include:
Sacra Pagina (New Testament) series (Liturgical Press)
Berit Olam (Old Testament) series (Liturgical Press)
Answer the following questions regarding the biblical passage you are researching: What type of literature is it (genre)? Where does the passage fit into the literary structure of the book? Who is the implied author/narrator/speaker? Who is the implied reader/hearer? What is the plot? Who are the characters? What literary techniques are used in the passage? What literary motifs, images or themes are found in the passage? What insights does this literary analysis provide for understanding the meaning of the passage?
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