Understanding text as it is meant to be - Essay Example

Understanding Text As It Is Meant To Be When trying to maneuver through such information, an important issue that arises comes down to a fundamental idea. That is, the question of where exactly the meaning of the subject matter lies within. Is it with the author, within the text body, or is it something that actually lies within the reader themselves through their individual understanding and interpretation of what it is they are trying to read and learn about in the first place. The written word is one of the most beautiful things ever to be created. Beauty that can differ. In terms of biblical interpretation, a common term to come about in research is that of Hermeneutics. "It is more broadly used contemporary philosophy to denote the study of theories and methods of the interpretation of all texts and systems of meaning. The concept of "text" is here extended beyond written documents to any number of objects subject to interpretation, such as experiences. A hermeneutic is also defined as a specific system or method for interpretation, or a specific theory of interpretation. However, the contemporary philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer has said that has said that hermeneutics is an approach rather than a method and, further, that the Hermeneutic circle is the central problem of interpretation," Going on to say that, "Essentially, hermeneutics involves cultivating the ability to understand things from somebody else's point of view, and to appreciate the cultural and social forces that may have influenced their outlook. Hermeneutics is the process of applying this understanding to interpreting the meaning of written texts and symbolic artifacts (such as art or sculpture or architecture), which may be either historic or contemporary," ("Hermeneutics" p.1). Throughout the course of time, history has played an important role in the creation of some of the greatest works of literary art that have survived the ages. "In the last two millennia, the scope of hermeneutics has expanded to include the investigation and interpretation not only of oral, textual and artistic works, but of human behaviour generally, including language and patterns of speech, social institutions, and ritual behaviours (such as religious ceremonies, political rallies, football matches, rock concerts, etc.). Hermeneutics interprets or inquires into the meaning and import of these phenomena, through understanding the point of view and 'inner life' (Dilthey) of an insider, or the first-person perspective of an engaged participant in these phenomena," ("Hermeneutics" p.1). As they set out to create their work, the author uses their understanding of the material to set forth a creation of literary discovery that seeks to aid in furthering greater study on a wide variety of subject matter, whatever the subject may be. In the case of the bible, "In the history of interpretation the rise of the historical-critical method opened a new era. With it, new possibilities for understanding the biblical word in its originality opened up. Just as with all human endeavor, though, so also this method contained hidden dangers along with its positive possibilities. The search for the original can lead to putting the word back into the past completely so that it is no longer taken in its actuality. It can result that only the human dimension of the word appears as real, while the genuine author, God, is removed from the reach of a method which was established for understanding human reality," ("Interpretation" p.1). The source goes on to discuss that, "Accordingly, the text of the document inquires into how the meaning of Scripture might become known-this meaning in which the human word and God's word work together in the singularity of historical events and the eternity of the everlasting Word, which is contemporary in every age. The biblical word comes from a real past. It comes not only from the past, however, but at the same time from the eternity of God and it leads us into God's eternity, but again along the way through time, to which the past, the present and the future belong," ("Interpretation" p.1). After all, the authors seeks to paint a picture with their chosen words, as well as those words that within themselves give way to the painted image of the subject matter and ultimately the reader is able to paint a picture within their own mind of what it is that they are reading in the first place. To read the bible holds personal meaning for many. Most people are raised with a sense of pride in their quest for spiritual understanding and fulfillment. As one of the oldest literary texts still in existence, the bible has survived the test of time and literary advancements. "The problem of the interpretation of the Bible is hardly a modern phenomenon, even if at times that is what some would have us believe. The Bible itself bears witness that its interpretation can be a difficult matter. Alongside texts that are perfectly clear, it contains passages of some obscurity. When reading certain prophecies of Jeremiah, Daniel pondered at length over their meaning (Dn. 9:2). According to the Acts of the Apostles, an Ethiopian of the first century found himself in the same situation with respect to a passage from the Book of Isaiah (Is. 53:7-8) and recognized that he had need of an interpreter (Acts 8:30-35). The Second Letter of Peter insists that "no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of private interpretation" (2 Pt. 1:20), and it also observes that the letters of the apostle Paul contain "some difficult passages, the meaning of which the ignorant and untrained distort, as they do also in the case of the other Scriptures, to their own ruin" (2 Pt. 3: 16)," ("Interpretation" p.1). Further alluding that, "The problem is therefore quite old. But it has been accentuated with the passage of time. Readers today, in order to appropriate the words and deeds of which the Bible speaks, have to project themselves back almost 20 or 30 centuries-a process which always creates difficulty. Furthermore, because of the progress made in the human sciences, questions of interpretation have become more complex in modern times. Scientific methods have been adopted for the study of the texts of the ancient world. To what extent can these methods be considered appropriate for the interpretation of holy Scripture For a long period the church in her pastoral prudence showed herself very reticent in responding to this question, for often the methods, despite their positive elements, have shown themselves to be wedded to positions hostile to the Christian faith. But a more positive attitude has also evolved, signaled by a whole series of pontifical documents, ranging from the encyclical "Providentissimus Deus" of Leo XIII (Nov. 18, 1893) to the encyclical "Divino Afflante Spiritu" of Pius XII (Sept. 30, 1943), and this has been confirmed by the declaration "Sancta Mater Ecclesia" of the Pontifical Biblical Commission (April 21, 1964) and above all by the dogmatic constitution "Dei Verbum" of the Second Vatican Council (Nov. 18, 1965)," ("Interpretation" p.1). Everyone has their own interpretations on so many different things that factor into the daily lives which they choose to lead. The previous quote from the source is quite correct as it comes to the complex nature of interpretation that is done by humans. Some of the various factors that can impede the interpretation of the Bible include; 1. The Bible contains some very ancient books; 2.Sometimes it is not even known who the author of a book really was; 3. Not knowing for certain who an author was is complicated by the period of time in which an author lived; 4. Since many authors were ancient Semites, their way of thinking and manner of expressing themselves differ from our own; 5. Since we do not possess any original manuscripts of the books of the Bible, we have to contend with copying and editing which occurred over time; 6. Then the issue of the multiplicity of human authors and editors complicates our understanding; 7. Finally, the fact of both a divine and a human author makes understanding a challenge. ("Hermeneutics: Understanding Revelation" p.1). The power of the written word is its ability to engage, as well as its path towards gaining a fuller sense of the world around those who live within it and that which they wish to understand better. Without such written works, generations would not have the ability to look back into the previous years and have the chance to form interpretations of those incidents that have occurred so many years ago. Through words comes the quest for better acknowledgment of the varied nature that is history. "Text, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is the "wording of anything written or printed; the structure formed by the words in their order; the very words, phrases, and sentences as written." Such a definition allows for text to be considered as both the written words in general, and, more holistically, as the combination of such written words to form a structure that produces meaning. Thus, the definition of text moves between text and textuality, moving from a singular word or symbol to a symbolic structure woven by the threads of language. Here, the history of the word text itself becomes crucial; text, stemming from tex-ere (to weave), is the "tissue of a literary work. . . .literally that which is woven, web, texture," Adding that, "As a texture, text is the weaving of words, ideas, and meaning, and it is also, most importantly, a texture spun by language, which in theory has become destabilized, a tangle of meaning and symbol. Therefore, text, as textuality, has become a site of theoretical criticism and argument as the identity of the true spinners of text has been called in to question. That is to say, theoretical movements have begun to examine where meaning lies within text, and who contributes to the final pattern. Does meaning emerge from authorial intention, from the structure of the text itself, or from the reader's own contributions [1] The pattern and threads of text have unraveled, leaving literary and linguistic theorists to weave together the structures of language and meaning, and to determine the limits and pathways created by text," ("text" p.1). Authors wish to convey their interpretation through the text they choose that enables their readers to facilitate their own understanding of the material that they are reading. In its own right, the text itself provides a glimpse into another world that, while similar it may be to the rest of the normal world, it tends to have a differing view of it, even ever so slightly, that serves to engage the imagination and encourage greater thought. Further definition of text describes it as, "the body of any treatise, the authoritative or formal part as distinguished from notes, appendices, introduction, and other explanatory or supplementary matter." Within its own definition, text implies authority: the final word. Thus, we find ourselves quoting "the text" to prove a point, using "textbooks" to locate fact and truth. This notion of the text as authoritative reaches back to the Old Testament and the biblical tale of the Ten Commandments. When Moses reveals the inscribed tablets, he reveals the word of God; thereby, the written language has, from its mythical origins, been associated with the divine. The phonetic alphabet, according to the Old Testament, replaces the making of images, and the written language thus becomes the paradigm for media, replacing images and laying claim to spiritual authority," As well as that, "The traditional understanding that accompanies the idea of text as authority is that of the work as closed, finished, a final product to be deciphered. Such a notion relies on structuralist thought, which posits language as a structure in which the relationship of words with one another produces a stable, unified meaning. This picture of language as a complex and solid structure grows out of the work of Ferdinand de Saussure in Course in General Linguistics . For Saussure, language is not merely "a list of words, each corresponding to the thing that it names," but a system of arbitrary linguistic signs that, when viewed in relationship to one another, create a universal, fixed system of meaning. [2] As the relations between words, rather than the words themselves, are determiners of meaning, binary opposition is a fundamental to structuralist thought. [3] Thus, meaning emerges from opposition, (i.e. we know light from dark, and dark from light) and oppositional relationships function as stable supports to language structure. [4]," ("text" p.1). Understanding of meaning can vary for each individual person. The author has the meaning which they set forth to convey at the time the work was produced, the reader has their own meaning of what has been placed in front of of them and even the text itself has a hidden meaning which may not be available to the naked eye. "One difficulty in making meaning comes from having to determine the most appropriate meaning of a word in a sentence when that word could have more than one meaning. For example, an offer of "Let's meet at the pool after lunch," might involve wearing a swim suit or meeting in room full of people working with word processing software (a typing pool). This type of ambiguity is called lexical ambiguity and the difficulty here lies in determining the appropriate meaning of a word with multiple meanings," ("Understanding Meaning" p.1). Any kind of ambiguity in text can most certainly lead towards a lack of understanding and the alteration of the ability to interpret the material. While there can be a varying state of ambiguity within the text, any present can place a proverbial cloud over clearer understanding of the material to begin with. How the text is interpreted in the first place is what leads to acceptance of the claim, or on the other hand, gives way to a sense of disagreement with what was written. "When reading texts, as when reading paintings, we increase understanding by recognizing the craftsmanship of the creation, the choices that the artist/author made to portray the topic a certain way. And yet there is still that feeling that texts are somehow different. Texts do differ from art insofar as they actually seem to come out and say something. There are assertions "in black and white" to fall back on. We can restate a text; we cannot restate a painting or action. Yet a text is simply symbols on a page. Readers bring to their reading recognition of those symbols, an understanding of what the words mean within the given social and historical context, and an understanding of the remarks within their own framework of what might make sense, or what they might imagine an author to have intended," Further elaborating that, "There is no escape; one way or another we are responsible for the meaning we find in our reading. When a text says that someone burned their textbooks, that is all that is there: an assertion that someone burned their textbooks. We can agree on how to interpret sentence structure enough to agree on what is stated in a literal sense. But any sense that that person committed an irresponsible, impulsive, or inspired act is in our own heads. It is not stated as such on the page (unless the author says so!). Stories present actions; readers infer personalities, motives, and intents. When we go beyond the words, we are reading meaning," ("Interpretation" p.1). "The most common and most serious of these fallacies, and the error from which many of the others spring, is the notion that God gave us His Word primarily to serve as a source of "propositional truths" (i.e., logical propositions) for theologians, who will then take these propositions, organize them into elegant theologies, and explain to us everything mere laymen need to know about Him. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The Bible is God's love letter to us. Its purpose is to lead believers, individually, into a close and loving relationship with Him. It is primarily a means of communication by which God leads individual people from hostility toward Him into an understanding of Him and of His love. While it undoubtedly states some "propositional truths" and study of these truths by believers, with the aid of believing theologians, can be useful in developing the relationship God desires, none of these logical propositions supported by scripture have any meaning or purpose outside of a growing relationship with God. Mere academic theology, which is not built on the author's relationship with God and is not directed at helping others find a closer friendship with Him, is empty... ," ("Errors" p.1). Being that the text to observe is that of the bible, as it comes to determining the meaning in the instance of whether or not it lies within the author, the reader would have to look to God himself as it is his word which is said to lie within the pages. "Disagreements in interpretation arise from differing views of the relation of divine and human authorship. The chief question is this: what is the relationship between what God says to us through the text and what the human author says Let us consider two simple alternatives. First, we could take the view that the meaning of the divine author has little or nothing to do with the meaning of the human author. For instance, according to an allegorical approach, commonly associated with Origen, 6whenever the "literal" meaning is unworthy of God, it is to be rejected. And even when the "literal" meaning is unobjectionable, the heart of the matter is often to be found in another level of meaning, a "spiritual" or allegorical meaning. If we were to take such a view, we could argue that the spiritual or allegorical meaning is part of the divine meaning in the text. But the human author was not aware of it," ("Divine" p.1). References "Divine Meaning of Scripture." Online Media Source. Accessed: 25 May 2008. URL: http://www.frame-poythress.org/poythress_articles/1986Divine.htm "Errors in textual interpretation methods." Online Media Source. Accessed: 25 May 2008. URL: http://www.angelfire.com/ks2/fallacies/falltext.htm#AF "Hermeneutics: Understanding Revelation." Online Media Source. Accessed: 25 May 2008. URL: http://www.catholicapologetics.org/ap031000.htm "Interpretation: Analyzing What a Text Means." Online Media Source. Accessed: 25 May 2008. URL: http://www.criticalreading.com/interpretation.htm "Text." Online Media Source: University of Chicago. Accessed: 25 May 2008. URL: http://humanities.uchicago.edu/faculty/mitchell/glossary2004/text.htm "THE INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH." Source: Pontifical Biblical Commission. Online Media Source. Accessed: 25 May 2008. URL: http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/PBCINTER.HTM "Understanding Meaning." Online Media Source: Illinois State Univ. English Dept. Accessed: 25 May 2008. URL:http://www.english.ilstu. edu/writingprogram/activities/jomeaning.html Wikipedia Online: The Free Encyclopedia. "Hermeneutics." Online Media Source. Accessed: 25 May 2008. URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermeneutics Read More