In Context

One of the fundamental principles of media literacy is that a text without context becomes a pretext. This principle reminds us of the importance of reading sacred texts in proper context which helps alleviate seeming inconsistencies.

Context can include the historical, cultural and religious world in which they were written and knowing the specific situations they were meant to address. Context can also mean the type of truth being communicated — a particularly important point since sacred texts are rarely meant to communicate biological, astronomical or geological truths but rather saving truth.

Most importantly, one should read these texts within the whole context of sacred writings giving greatest interpretative force to those which most clearly communicate divine revelation, which for Christians are the Gospels since they communicate most clearly who God is in Jesus, the Incarnate Son. Finally, texts should be understood with respect to the context of historical authoritative interpretation.