Review article
Lectio divina in the Orthodox tradition and contemporary biblical hermeneutics
Predrag Dragutinović
orcid.org/0000-0001-7361-5581
; Faculty of Orthodox Theology - University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia
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.
Keywords
lectio divina; Orthodox hermeneutics; spiritual reading; contemporary biblical hermeneutics
Hrčak ID:
272109
URI
Publication date:
8.2.2022.
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