Part 56. Guidance and control. Principles and rules (4)

According to Oliver Wendell Holmes the law has no metaphysical or natural law basis. It is not a brooding omnipresence in the sky. The prophecies of what a court will do in fact and nothing more pretentious are what I mean by the law.

Such an approach applied to scripture 

would not commend itself to bible literalist fundamentalists, but should pose no problems for those whose doctrinal belief is that scripture is human inspired.

We may take inspiration on how scripture should be read by referring to Holmes observations on the method that should be adopted to applying the provisions of the USA Constitution. Unlike the UK the USA has a written Constitution. Holmes argues that the Constitution should not be read as a statute is but as the common law is read.

The provisions of the Constitution are not mathematical formulas that have their essence in form: they are organic and living institutions.  Their significance is to be gathered not simply by taking the words and a dictionary,  but by considering their origin and line of growth. 

When interpreting scripture I commend the approach outlined above. We have a living faith relevant to our time. Therefore, we must interpret scripture accordingly. Our faith must not be hampered by interpreting scripture as we would a statute. 

Beware those who seek to control, or guide us towards a static exclusive  introspective faith.  Embrace those who guide us towards a dynamic, outgoing and inclusive faith. Chuck out the dictionary, welcome Jesus.

Jesus said a lot on the subject of interpretation as we shall discover in the following post.

To be continued.......