Theorists who spend more time philosophizing than reading a multitude of diverse texts are not the best guides to what is in literature. Biblical scholars who read theory with a narrow experience of literature as a whole are not qualified to judge how far a theory fits the observable facts. . . . Biblical scholars should rely less on models of critical praxis than on a broad firsthand acquaintance with the great variety of particular literary works.

--John W. Sider in "Interpreting the Parables: A Hermeneutical Guide to Their Meaning" (Zondervan, 283 pp.; $14.99, paper).

Copyright (c) 1996 Christianity Today, Inc./BOOKS & CULTURE

May/June 1996, Vol. 2, No. 3, Page 4

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