Reader Response

Anthony Thiselton ( New Horizons in Hermeneutics ) notes that “It may readily be granted, without any difficulty that some (or even in principle many) biblical texts do function in ways which invite a reader-oriented hermeneutic.”

A very wise statement, that. Wise, first, in acknowledging the strength of reader-oriented modes of interpretation; wise, second, in recognizing that text differs from text, and that imposing a single hermeneutical grid or method on all is ideology not interpretation.

Hence: Joyce and many modernists produce texts that are radically underdetermined. Readers don’t merely discern the coherence, but actually do provide whatever coherence the text has. And that’s by authorial design. Hence also: If the short ending of Mark is right, that’s a classic example: The gospel leaves the reader hanging, forces a decision upon him.