Thanks for your thoughts. I agree that there can be value in scripture—as a moral guideline for one’s life, for example.

But most people don’t read scripture for its history. The bible contains many genres : historical narrative, wisdom, poetry, prophecy, preaching or legal codes. Some readers appreciate these different genre’s with little thought of history. Scripture can be read through a variety of lenses too. Some look for truth, for wisdom, for daily guidance, for comfort, for faith, for universal truth, or doctrine, to prove your point, to justify some practice, or to condemn some “other”, etc.

I am quite interested in scripture and how we should read it. One thing that dismays me is a lack of scriptural literacy among North American society generally (because that is what I know) and even among Latter Day Saints. Most don’t know enough about scripture generally to be careful readers. For example if you understand that Matthew quotes Isaiah a lot then what you know about Isaiah helps you understand what Matthew’s point might be. That in turn might help you understand what Isaiah was getting at. You also have a book like Romans which is notoriously difficult to read let alone reach a consensus about what it means. Many of us are so affected by what Martin Luther said Romans was about it is hard to read it in any other way. Mormons love the Reformation but they often have anti-Lutheran interpretations and conflict with many traditional readings.. So what is the real truth Paul was trying to convey?

Often we assume we know what scripture is saying without giving it a second thought because we read it through a particular doctrinal lense. We think we know the answer before we begin reading.

Sometimes we find in Jesus a nice man with lovely sayings so we miss some of his difficult sayings, especially about self righteousness, wealth, poverty, oppression of the poor, etc.

I can agree that there are definitely certain ways we should not read scripture (proof texting is my favorite abomination) but there are some healthy and constructive ways to read scripture. It is a difficult task… a task of a lifetime if you want to get it right but I am convinced that learning to read scripture correctly is a worthwhile task…