Literary Studies and the Modern Christian

Is postmodernism taking over the Christian world? Can we apply literature practices in Bible Study?

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For anyone who has been in any sort of literature class, you have likely been fed with a bunch of ways of handling literature. In my literature class in Australia, one of the things they introduced me to were “reading practices”. Often this means that based on the values, beliefs and contexts that we find ourselves in, we might “read” or interpret texts in a certain way. For example, “Romeo and Juliet” may be read using a Marxist reading practice, whereby Juliet’s maid is forced by Juliet to carry a message. She is concluded to be a proletariat oppressed by the bourgeoisie. But it may also be read from a feminist perspective, whereby Juliet, saddened by the selfish suicide of Romeo and trapped by the man’s influence over her, feels the need to end her own life. These readings may seem a bit ridiculous. And for many, Romeo and Juliet would just be seen as a warning against the foolish love of children.

Perhaps we know what Shakespeare’s intended meaning was.

But in literary studies, the author’s context or intended meaning has very little bearing on what people interpret the text as. In fact, the reader is the central figure in reading a piece of literature. It is their context, values and beliefs which help to define their interpretation.

Literature nowadays exists in the age of postmodernism: the age of subjective and objective truth. What I believe to be true, is often different to what you believe to be true and both are true. And all these truths have to be tolerated in our society. The error in this thinking is uncovered if we realise there is an antonym to truth: falsehood.

Imagine you are writing a book, let’s call it “What to eat when you are hungry”. Now, inside this book are a bunch of photos and recipes for delicious foods to eat. The author, yourself, believes that the foods inside are the ones the reader should eat when they are hungry. Now imagine one of the photos contains an image of a person at a table, eating the food as described in the recipe. You would not want someone to come away saying, “the author’s beliefs and values are that the foods in this book are the one’s I should eat. But because a person appears in this book, and because I come from a context where cannibalism is okay, I am going to eat a person when I am hungry”. Whilst your issue may not be a lawsuit from the family of the victim of cannibalism, your intention has been defied, just because the reader has made their own reading.

It seems like a hyperbole. And indeed, it is. But recognize this, there have been terrible implications for these practices in our own churches. Imagine a church where the pastor’s interpretation of scripture is always truth, and where their truth is not what God has stated in his word. This has been a problem since the beginning of time, through the age of Enlightenment, to our own post-modernist age now.

Remember Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? God’s truth was correct. But, in essence, when Satan tempted them, what they believed to be true was prioritised. God’s truth was irrelevant.

In response to the first question in the title – yes, I believe that it is becoming more and more practiced in our Christian world. And we are often blind to it. It is exactly why when your pastor is preaching from scripture, you read along as well. Don’t be misguided by what can easily become errant human authority. Allow the Holy Spirit to work in your heart so that you might recognize the difference between truth and falsehood.

Is there room for literary practice in our Bible studies? Yes, but be careful. Recognise a theme, but don’t necessarily make your own interpretation. I love to see when certain themes are threaded throughout the Bible, which is a skill that literature prepared me for so well. Literature has even helped me to see repetition of not just theme, but language, which also helps me to interpret. But remember, my reading of the text should be what the author’s intended meaning was, whether or not I agree with it.

-If you’re a Christian, I encourage you to hold fast in a strange world. It is very easy to build up an immunity to what you see around you, to forget that things are actually messed up. But remember, what God’s word says is true – so may the Holy Spirit guide you as you read and interpret, properly, what he says to be true-

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