Lectio divina in the Orthodox tradition and contemporary biblical hermeneutics Cover Image

Lectio divina u pravoslavnoj predaji i suvremenoj biblijskoj hermeneutici
Lectio divina in the Orthodox tradition and contemporary biblical hermeneutics

Author(s): Predrag Dragutinović
Subject(s): History of Church(es), Biblical studies, Eastern Orthodoxy, Hermeneutics
Published by: Katolički bogoslovni fakultet
Keywords: lectio divina; Orthodox hermeneutics; spiritual reading; contemporary biblical hermeneutics;

Summary/Abstract: In Orthodox tradition the concept of „spiritual reading“ of Scripture might be viewed as equivalent to the methods and experience described as lectio divina by Latin authors. This approach to biblical texts in modern biblical studies has sometimes been challenged, ignored or declared to be pre-modern and obsolete. However, the turn towards „synchrony“ in the second half of the 20th century places the concept of the reader, the experience, the relationship between the reader and the text, appropriation, attitude towards „the substance of the text“, and so on at the center of hermeneutical observations. This approach has brought lectio divina back to the field of hermeneutic reflection. In the Orthodox Tradition, as well as in modern Orthodox biblical studies, lectio divina or „spiritual reading“ is considered appropriate to absorbing the fundamental claims of biblical texts; it does not inhibit correctly understood historical criticism; and it allows the voice of texts from the distant past to speak of God down the ages and diachronically communicate essential biblical messages to the Church and society.

  • Issue Year: 2021
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 215-225
  • Page Count: 11
  • Language: Croatian