 | Interpreting the Bible and the Constitution Jaroslav Pelikan compares the methods by which the official interpreters of the Bible and the Constitution--the Christian Church and the Supreme Court, respectively--have approached the necessity of interpreting, and reinterpreting, their important texts. In spite of obvious differences, both texts require close, word-by-word exegesis, an awareness of opinions that have gone before, and a willingness to ask new questions of old codes, Pelikan observes. He probes for answers to the question of what makes something authentically "constitutional+? or "biblical,+? and he demonstrates how an understanding of either biblical interpretation or constitutional interpretation can illuminate the other in important ways. Jaroslav Pelikan is Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University. He served as the first John W. Kluge Scholar at the Library of Congress. A world authority on the Christian tradition, he is a highly sought lecturer, the author of nearly forty books, and the editor of scores of others. |
