Building a Community of Interpreters:
Readers and Hearers as Interpreters
by Walter R. Dickhaut
Cascade Books, Eugene, Ore. 146 pages
If asked to free-associate using the words, Bible study, it is unlikely that the words mystery, surprise and expectation would be the first words out of our mouths. How about for the word preaching or sermon? Would either evoke Gomer Pyle’s exclamation, “Surprise, surprise, surprise!!”?
Walter Dickhaut’s proposal is that readers and hearers of the Word may expect such responses. As he puts it, “Interpretation (moves us) beyond what is normal or natural. It points to possibilities that may be out of sight but not out of reach. The community reaches toward new worlds of possibility.”
Dickhaut makes such expectations credible as he skillfully describes a process of interpretation where the focus is on the hearer and the goal is expectation. It begins by our recognition that we all carry interpretive filters that we take for granted. Filters like racial bias, sexism and certitude restrict interpretation. Also, our angle of vision, our stance in place, time and circumstance affects our ability to hear.
The author proposes mystery, surprise and expectation as elements which enable us to hear more from the text. Dickhaut calls these elements metaphorical lenses that disclose transcendence and serve as eschatological signs of the unexpected. Such lenses enhance a way of seeing that enlarges both interpretation and our angle of vision. He affirms, “When we locate the surprise elements of a text it is likely that we are at the portal of something transcendent. … They connote an otherness — that surprises us along the contours of mystery, and bestirs us to a threshold of expectation.”
Dickhaut’s image for the process is an open-ended spiral that enables hearers to share layers of meanings. He hopes that hearers will find wonder and astonishment. Not surprisingly, his chief complaint about sermons is that they offer only explanation, not interpretation that brings new meaning into the present moment.
As examples of his interpretive process, the reader is treated to sections from Dickhaut’s sermons that are gems of artistry and imagination. They are specific examples drawn from his participation in building communities of interpretation as pastor and teacher.
What difference does it make if we regard readers and hearers of Scripture as producers of meaning, rather than as simply receivers or repeaters of what others have said a text means? If we follow this process, so what?
Dickhaut draws these conclusions:
- Interpretation is not just the work of experts. We are all interpreters; therefore,
- Interpretation in community produces avenues of mutual accountability and,
- Ultimately, the answer to the “so-what?” question is owned by the community of interpreters.
In an Afterword, Dickhaut offers a teaching plan for building a community of interpreters, plus advice to “remember that the process is not to change someone’s mind but to enhance understanding.”
ROLLIN TARTER is honorably retired from Transylvania Presbytery.
