Spirituality and Christianity

Episode #11 is a discussion about interpreting the Bible. What would this world be like if we all got the same meaning out of the Bible?

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It’s strange that it means so many things to so many people, and yet it has held such a powerful hold on diverse people for some 2,000 years. Rather than arguing over who’s right or wrong about its meaning, John Spangler and I found a more useful approach to the Bible’s meaning by expanding our views of interpretation. John is a Lutheran teacher, serving as Executive Assistant to the President at Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, PA. My seminary degree is from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, and I am a Christian Science practitioner.

We enjoyed sharing just a few of our experiences with our efforts at interpreting the Bible. John brings out one of the most significant difficulties in our modern-day understanding of the Bible by pointing to the importance of our culture when we read any ancient text. Considering the wide gulf between the culture of the early Christians in the Middle East and the American culture of today, it’s hard to imagine how the words could convey anything of meaning. And yet, the enduring part of the Bible is that it does appear to transcend all the human boundaries of time, culture, language, and history.

John’s story of a woman’s life-size pictures of dead birds, and my attempts to express the meaning of a psalm through ripping paper are two examples of the wonderful adventure of Biblical interpretation through art.

Tell us your stories. We’d love to hear from you. Enter them into “comment” just below this posting on episode #11 of Spirituality and Christianity. Thanks!

From the podcast:

• Religion Communicators Council
• Lutheran Theological Seminary
• Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
• Hermeneutics

art, Biblical interpretation, Garrett-Evangelican Theological Seminary, hermeneutics, Lutheran Theologican Seminary, Religion Communicators Council

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