The Soul's Longing: An Orthodox Christian Perspective on Biblical Interpretation

by Mary S. Ford

The Soul's Longing: An Orthodox Christian Perspective on Biblical Interpretation has as its main purpose to show the deep connection between spiritual life and biblical interpretation which is both inspiring and accurate. It also makes clear the powerful effect of the interpreter's theology – especially the understanding of who Jesus Christ is – upon his or her method of biblical interpretation.

This is done by looking at fundamental principles of traditional Christian theology, along with an historical overview indicating the close connections between interpretation and spiritual life in the Church of the early centuries. In addition, the book describes what went wrong through the later centuries that has led to the problems in much biblical scholarship today – such as the work of the notorious “Jesus Seminar.”

This book also shows why the exegetical strengths of the early Church can and should be brought into the present while retaining what is of value from biblical scholarship of the recent past. Some examples are given of how this can be done.

Genres: Spirituality

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 12, 2015

Reviews

[DúviAurvandil Ericsson e Pereira]

This is a magnificent work on what the proper approach to the Holy Scriptures should be. And far from being just another book with a new, secret "key" to understanding everything, this is more a total reset of the model of coming to the Bible. It is not "just a book," nor is it an "instruction manual," nor is it a systematic theology, though of course it is full of literary elements, instructions that should definitely be followed if one wants a good life, and absolutely dripping with theology. The proper "key" if there is one, is instead in the person opening This Book to see what it communicates. This person must have a heart of humility, not setting himself above others who can inform him what a passage means; diligence, never giving up on difficult sections, but trusting that God loves him and has it all there for a good reason; asceticism, knowing that he must disentangle himself from love of this world in order to taste the fruit that comes from the heavenly words; and love, his heart must be aflame for relationship with God so that the true purpose of the Scriptures can be manifested in his life.

This, of course, is all explained much more elegantly and thoroughly in The Soul's Longing, with much good support from Church History, the Fathers, and contemporary scholarly support.

[Andrew Van]

This is a book I almost didn't buy. "The Soul's Longing", really?!? That sort of title bespeaks poetic ramblings, perhaps some dime-a-dozen devotional (which everyone knows are in the same category as cookbooks in second hand stores), especially coming from a woman with a boring name.
Then I started reading it. This book just about "did it all". Mrs Ford covers thousands of years of history, jumps continents with ease, discussing the cosmos and Divinity with ease. Books explaining the animi habitus of the East and the West can be had at anyone's leisure, thick or thin, in Greek, Latin, German, and English, red and yellow, black or white, take your pick; but accessible books that explain the difference between the two effortlessly without spewing outright animosity are a tad bit more rare. This book touched on everything One needs to know to understand the important discrepancies without bogging One down with unnecessaries. And the best part is Mrs Ford tells you which books to buy for further study, and I bought most of them...

[Ted]

I did like the book. Ford offers exactly what the title says: an Orthodox Christian perspective on biblical interpretation. For me she spent too much time bashing modern biblical methods of scholarly interpretation. Obviously those interpretations have a totally different foundation and perspective than Orthodoxy. We need more works putting forth our views, not just bashing the Christian West. But I think she helps move us in the direction of putting forth an Orthodox understanding of how to do biblical reading and explanation. The risk, which has been there for years is that reacting against Protestant or scholarly interpretations we will declare there is one and only one way to read any one text, which would not be consistent with the Fathers who made many different uses of any one text. Our Tradition is rich and deep but some want to reduce it one narrow interpretation - we become Patristic fundamentalists just like the Protestant fundamentalists we so despise.