Pervasive Interpretive Pluralism

Augustine doesn’t think interpretive pluralism as a big problem:

“What difficulty is it for me when these words can be interpreted in various ways, provided only that the interpretations are true? What difficulty is it for me, I say, if I understand the text in a way different from someone else, who understands the scriptural author in another sense? In Bible study, all of us are trying to find and grasp the meaning of the author we are reading, and when we believe him to be revealing truth, we do not dare to think he said anything which we either know or think to be incorrect. As long as each interpreter is endeavoring to find in the holy Scriptures the meaning of the author who wrote it, what evil is it if an exegesis he gives is one shown to be true by you [i.e., God], light of all sincere souls, even if the author whom he is reading did not have that idea and, though he grasped a truth, had not discerned that seen by the interpreter.”