Sacred Texts and the Desert: Lessons for a Practical-Theological Hermeneutic of Discernment (original) (raw)

A practical-theological approach to the interpretation of Sacred Scripture in the Christian tradition, available for contemporary scholars, may be found in the lives and sayings of the desert elders of 4 th and 5 th century Egypt. Like many approaches to the study of practical theology, the Scriptural hermeneutic of the desert elders is rooted in a tradition-constituted community, its formative practices, and its practical wisdom. This practical-theological approach to sacred texts in the desert is illuminated by the following story. When some young monks went to Abba Felix and asked "for a word of salvation," he told them: