When it comes to how we read the Bible, how we approach the texts, and how we deal with the passages we dislike, we basically have two options:
- We select certain passages and make them the basis and criterion for interpreting the whole (thus creating the famous “canon within the canon”). We arrange all other texts around them; we bend to this “canon” any passages that (apparently or actually) speak differently, perhaps with the help of allegory, eisegesis, and other interpretive techniques. In this way, we can obtain a clearly defined, transparent, and well-organized system of belief, where everything is understandable and determined.
- We allow all passages to speak with undiminished power. We do not bend one under the other, even though this may leave paradoxes, contradictions, and oxymorons that we cannot fully explain, organize, clarify, untangle, or resolve. In this way we do not get a clear and conspicuous theological system, but a series of powerful words that challenge and encourage us, undermine and provoke us, and lovingly attack us from different directions. It is an explosive mixture that actively works within us to make us active in the kingdom of God.
Matjaž Črnivec 