Hermeneutical Methods: The Bible and Its Multiple Interpretive Perspectives

Methods of biblical reading offer different ways of interpreting the Scriptures in the light of an objective perspective. The great majority of studies taking this approach use the historical-critical method.

In academic circles a number of hermeneutical methods have emerged that bring ideological presuppositions to the biblical text, among them psychological, feminist, and sociological criticism.

Strongly influenced by Friedrich Schleiermacher, regarded as the father of modern hermeneutics, these methods seek to understand the historical-cultural context and the subjectivity of the author in order to approach his original thought.

Critical reading, however, pursues an interpretation grounded in the reality in which it stands, aiming to bring the biblical message up to date according to the tendency of the method employed. Access to the author’s thought is not discarded, but neither is it the final objective of the reading.

From a sociological reading, for instance, the lens applied to the whole of Scripture is the effort to understand the social context in its economic, political, and ideological aspects, so as to draw out lessons that answer the demands of a particular social class. Biblical interpretation, in other words, is carried out according to the reader’s own reality.

The Gospel of Luke is a telling example of the sociological method, since it is regarded as the “Gospel of the Poor.” Its emphasis falls on Jesus’ message in favor of the less fortunate and against the powerful and wealthy of this world. Liberation Theology, widely applied in the Latin American context, takes up the theme of social inequality, defends the rights of the poor, and calls for a movement marked by equality and solidarity.

This view has found little acceptance in evangelical circles, and is often confused with communism in both its ideology and its politics. The Bible, moreover, is far more than a manual of sociology and activism; it is the Word of God. Although it contains teaching on social equality and on charity toward the marginalized, it should not and cannot be reduced to its social context alone.

There are, in the end, many ways to read the Word of God and to draw from it lessons that favor one ideological or political class or another. None of them, however, is complete in itself. However much the Bible speaks a message that illuminates a particular social class, it is above all the Word of God: the good news of salvation in Christ Jesus.