If we are not applying a hermeneutical strategy consistently throughout the scriptures (will all the problems that applying scripture throws up from various texts), then it makes it easier to confirm our what we already believe/do or want to believe/do by selecting a method for a problem that will lead to our desired outcome.
A single method will probably not be able to deal with all the problems encountered, but there nevertheless must be a foundational hermeneutic upon which all subsequent moves must be established or be compatible with. Even by doing this, however, we cannot guarantee that bias will not interfere. But it does make it harder for us to do so, harder for us to adopt which ever method may result in the desired outcome.
Further, the over-arching method which I propose is grounded within the nature of scriptural faith, and so recieves justification from this. One cannot claim that the hermeneutical strategy is adopted merely to sidestep a challenge or to dismiss parts of the scriptures.
A note on "scriptural faith": By this I mean not an amalgam or harmonization of all teaching within the sriptures, nor all the beliefs of the authors of the scriptures. Rather, It is what ties them all together, the central/foundational beliefs, what they all to a degree share (some on the level of authors beliefs, some on the surface of the writing). By this I mean their following of the God as he acts with and for his creation within history. And so although I say "beliefs" i mean not only beliefs, but their enactment, because a set of beliefs alone does not constitute a "faith" or "religion".
A single method will probably not be able to deal with all the problems encountered, but there nevertheless must be a foundational hermeneutic upon which all subsequent moves must be established or be compatible with. Even by doing this, however, we cannot guarantee that bias will not interfere. But it does make it harder for us to do so, harder for us to adopt which ever method may result in the desired outcome.
Further, the over-arching method which I propose is grounded within the nature of scriptural faith, and so recieves justification from this. One cannot claim that the hermeneutical strategy is adopted merely to sidestep a challenge or to dismiss parts of the scriptures.
A note on "scriptural faith": By this I mean not an amalgam or harmonization of all teaching within the sriptures, nor all the beliefs of the authors of the scriptures. Rather, It is what ties them all together, the central/foundational beliefs, what they all to a degree share (some on the level of authors beliefs, some on the surface of the writing). By this I mean their following of the God as he acts with and for his creation within history. And so although I say "beliefs" i mean not only beliefs, but their enactment, because a set of beliefs alone does not constitute a "faith" or "religion".
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