In my mind I substitute, text for poetry. There is meaning in texts and we have interest in getting at the meaning, that’s not the problem. But we shouldn’t be trying to beat the text into submission with our surefire interpretive methods and formulaic Bible study questions. And the more poetic the biblical text the more we are going to be like the mouse, making some wrong turns, thinking we get it but later realizing we’ve hit a dead end. I like the image of feeling around for the light switch. I don’t think we are doomed to darkness and shadows when it comes to understanding the Bible, just that sometimes finding the light switch involves some fumbling around.
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