Ways to read the Bible

More to come, but the interpretation of Scripture is a subject I've neglected. It is not a big subject, and actually I've touched on it, but not in a clear way. For instance the four levels of meaning in Scripture I've mentioned (not that I've been giving lectures, don't mean to imply that). Literal, allegorical, moral, and anagogical.

This comes up because I want to now read the Bible complete with higher energy in me if not in the third state itself. I.e. self-remember for a period of time prior to reading each single chapter.

And ponder what I read. Meditate on it.

Now since I already know the literal meaning, as I read and take it in now I can focus on the spiritual meanings. But just as a framework, because as stated earlier I don't want to plaster onto it what my intellect can come up with. I want to expose the living language to higher centers, and get meaning and understanding as a seed grows in time.

Dividing between the literal and spiritual is Aquinas' approach (I'm not becoming RC, Calvin quoted Aquinas too when he was on-the-mark).

The literal is the redemptive/historical, plan of God, stuff of systematic theologies.

The spiritual is the three other levels of meaning: allegorical sense, focusing on Christ and the church, or Pilgrim; tropological, or moral, sense focusing on the individual's conduct and behavior; anagogical sense, focusing on the eschatological meaning, or future fulfillment or higher reality of people, places, things, events, ideas.

So, framework for meditation on each chapter, with higher energy in me, looking ultimately to plant a crop of the entire word that will hopefully grow in time and be harvested as real and new understanding. And it will of course build on the literal and foundational basics rather than supplant that foundation, it goes without saying.

- C.