Lecture Question Module #6 Joseph

One of the first mistakes in Biblical interpretation was allegory. You see is starting in Greek culture then adopted by the Jews, and then taken to a real extreme. The counter to this was the literal interpretation, which when taken to the extreme of substituting letters for meaning, was a little too far. Coming back the other way towards allegory, devotional interpretation is weak in the fact that there is still a lot of allegory.
Devotional interpretation starts with a good intention to interpret Scripture in order to build ones spiritual life. I believe that the fact that one is looking to the Bible as its source of edification, instead of the One who wrote it, is the fallacy. When we deviate our focus from God, we leave the path.
In order to glean the good things from Devotional interpretation, God must be the focus, not my spiritual life. When our focus is on God, He does the changing. It is important not to allegorize the Old Testament as much of Devotional studies tent to do. Devotional is good on a personal level, but it needs to be balanced with a diet of good doctrinal study and exegesis.
It seems to me that Devotional interpretation looks good, because it is defined as, “the method of interpreting Scripture which places emphasis on the edifying aspects of scripture, and interpreting with the intention of developing the spiritual life.” But as it is practiced and demonstrated by the different schools it seems to stray. This has been pretty tuff to understand for me, so hopefully I am tracking.