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Questions for Every Christian

The Rt Rev. Jana Jeruma-Grinberga

Voices from the Communion on Reading the Bible Together

The LWF Department for Theology and Studies has launched a consultation series to promote common, communion-building approaches to biblical interpretation ahead of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation in 2017.

The Rt Rev. Jana Jeruma-Grinberga, Lutheran Church in Great Britain, is one of the theologians meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, for the first consultation. Lutheran World Information talked to her about the challenges of hermeneutics and her expectations of the meeting.

How are you contributing to this meeting?

I am the convener of the listeners’ group. We are charged with listening to what is going on, trying to distill and filter it, and producing a final statement from this consultation.

The statement will stimulate further work in the LWF Department of Theology and Studies, as well as being a resource for congregations and churches to develop their own ideas about hermeneutics and how they should be reading the Bible.

What challenges does this topic face in today’s world?

Mostly, people [here] understand what hermeneutics mean, but at the moment we are struggling to come up with a definition that everybody here would accept.

I think that the word hermeneutics does not mean very much at all for the ordinary person in the pew. Nonetheless, how we interpret the Bible, how we read it, how we understand it and how we apply it in our daily lives, are questions for every Christian.

So for us to be able to stimulate a discussion, to be able to stimulate thoughts, not only among theologians, but among all Lutherans is a huge and important task. I think the importance also lies in understanding what the hermeneutical process is.

If we can agree on a common set of rules, then the issues that divide us become less sharp. We will be able see that other people, who have looked at the same problem as we have, using the same, legitimate set of rules, which are good, biblically based and sound in terms of Lutheran understanding, have arrived at different decisions to ours or a different understanding. That’s okay.

Then we have to live with that tension, because the people have arrived at the decision in a way that is faithful and still sound and good, even if it is different to ours.

What are your expectations of this meeting?

We hope something will be on the LWF Web site which will be resource for anybody and will trigger further discussion. I think if we can come up with questions to ask then maybe the next consultation will begin to come up with answers, but I don’t think we are ready for answers just yet.

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