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From Letter to Spirit
Author(s) -
RENO R. R.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
international journal of systematic theology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.149
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 1468-2400
pISSN - 1463-1652
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2400.2011.00599.x
Subject(s) - literal (mathematical logic) , scholarship , philosophy , interpretation (philosophy) , epistemology , literature , linguistics , art , law , political science
Reformation polemics and modern historical‐critical scholarship has encouraged us to see the spiritual sense of Scripture as remote from the literal sense. However, a close examination of the traditional methods of spiritual interpretation shows that the literal sense plays an important role in expositions of the spiritual sense. Traditional methods both anchor and motivate spiritual readings by recourse to the letter of Scripture, and as a consequence the speculative stretch toward the spiritual is saturated with the literal.