I said "
I have a set of views that I am fairly sure are self consistent. I am open to new ideas if I am presented with enough evidence and if you have the same outlook then we will get along just fine.. "
Willie-T said "I think we have the same outlook. As I understood you, you said you didn't have the time nor inclination to really do any studying of anything we might present... only that you just came to a forum venue to counter points people here could type out for you to read.
I feel the same. "
I don't have a lot of time spare to do the level of studying that it seems is required to understand the smoke and mirrors of yet another house where logic at first seems to hold sway. I am quite caplable of reading what is said and if in difficulty I can ask questions. The alternative is to walk into the sunset as I did when a muslim told me that the koran is only the koran when it is in arabic. My English version just didn't cut the mustard. I wasn't prepared to learn Arabic so end of story.
1LonelyKnight said "We are evaluating a literary work here and hermeneutics is a literary interpretive system"
Theopedia [
http://www.theopedia.com/interpretation-of-the-bible] says "Hermeneutics is the science of interpreting what an author has written. In Christian theology, hermeneutics focuses specifically on constructing and discovering the appropriate rules for interpreting the
Bible. These methods and principles, however, are often drawn from outside of scripture in historical, literary or other fields. It inevitably involves
exegesis, which is the act of interpreting or explaining the meaning of scripture. The goal in applying the principles of hermeneutics is to "rightly handle the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15), striving to accurately discern the meaning of the text."
How about just reading it plain and simple?
The only parallel I can think of for "hermeneutics" is the systems used by Rabbis to interpret the various Jewish books and that resulted in the kabbalah. I’m also sure that or somebody will tell me I’m wrong.
Either the bible means what it says or it doesn’t, if it doesn’t then what are we arguing about. If it does mean what it says then a plain reading of the text should be enough, possible with contextual history as a background.
I have to ask “Is hermeneutics just a form of JuJu used to indoctrinate the young or the confused?” I have come across such systems in the Moonies, Hare Krsna, Children Of God, Baptist and Catholic Churches. I have not found it in Buddhist sect but maybe I didn’t look too hard as it seemed the least harmful of religions I have yet to find time to look at the Jains but they seem harmless too.
Peace
Your Friendly Neighbourhood Heretic