Getting texts to talk. A critical analysis of attempts at eliciting contemporary messages from ancient holy books as exercises in religious communication

Abstract

Religious Communication as academic discipline analyses the ways in which the spiritual commitments of humanity find expression in and through communicative acts. Diverse and multi-disciplinary as this discipline is, one of the aspects Religious Communication studies, is the problematic religiously inclined people experience in eliciting a meaningful message, relevant to modern times, from holy texts (such as the Bible) that stem from ancient times, dissimilar cultures, and far-removed communicative contexts. Within Christianity such problematic have, inter alia, given rise in the modern era to exegesis as an expert enterprise with which to practice the science and art of both understanding the texts within their ancient contexts and eliciting valid messages from them for current times. In such endeavours, Communication and Theology mix in a unique way as an expression of Religious Communication. In this contribution, the author builds forth on previous publications in the fields of Religious Communication and of Exegesis, to discuss here some major modern attempts in this regard. The pre-modern allegorical use of biblical texts were through the rise of historical consciousness, as part of the Enlightenment, replaced by historical-critical interpretations of the holy texts, which then dominated the exegetical scene for about two centuries. During the past half-century, however, different a-historical methods have been developed. In this contribution, the communicative intent with each of these exegetical methodologies are described and compared critically.