Part of the point I am trying to make is that we cannot simply parachute into the context of the Fathers and disregard it by plucking out quotations that appear to support our conclusions. Great care is required to understand world into which we enter, and this entails addressing some foundational issues. When modern assumptions about biblical interpretation are projected onto the Fathers, we run the risk of making them champions of some idea or concept that they simply were not. To assume that the Fathers read “literally” in the same way we mean “literal” is a misrepresentation of their context.—Early Christian Readings of Genesis One, page 158
<idle musing>
How many of us are guilty of using the &rqquo;parachute drop“ version of hermeneutics? And not just with respect to the church fathers, either! The whole concept of proof-texting is based on a parachute drop hermeneutics!
</idle musing>
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