Today I finished and sent my MA dissertation - a very odd feeling of mixed emotions. For one thing, I wonder just how many people will end up actually reading it and of those how many will read the whole thing. It has been a fascinating topic ("The Spirit in the Reader - beyond authorial intent?") and one that I continue to ponder. Thinking about how we read scripture is a topic that should never really be allowed to come to a close with an assumption that we've got our method sorted now. It is always worth re-investing time in considering how we relate to the Bible as this has far-reaching implications. I encourage you to think for a moment about what you consider the Spirit's role to be in your Bible-reading. Do we just pray and ask him to bless what we've already decided it means? Does your experience of God make a difference to how you read? Is what the author intended really the only meaning and the end of meaning? Why/why not? No need to write 20,000 words on that as I just have (well, 19, 978 to be precise) but do at least have a ponder.
I think that this subject of the Spirit's involvement in our reading is only really beginning to be explored properly, largely thanks to the Pentecostal wing of the church. Perhaps others will take things further. Maybe some of the additional material I never used for the dissertation will appear somewhere in some form at some point. But at least I feel that I've opened up the questions on an area that to my mind had been pretty much overlooked. I encourage you to explore too.
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