Each living person draws upon two quite
distinct sources of meaning. The current 'vulgate' or common understanding.
This is that which enables us to communicate with one another. Hidden
beneath this is a 'private thesaurus'. What any two people mean when they
speak or hear will overlap only to a certain extent by virtue of their
sharing the 'vulgate' of a particular human group.
No reader comes to a text as a 'cultural
virgin'. Our readings are affected at the outset by pre-understanding and
private thesaurus.The meaning which we retrieve from a text will never be
absolutely identical with the meaning which it had for its author or, for
any other reader.
Meaning is something which 'happens' when we
read the text and which is like the knowledge of the Lord in which the
Psalmist rejoiced, new every morning.
This is not a transparent text through
which we view something else. It is like a stained glass window depicting a
story. It is 'the story we find ourselves
in'.
=======================================================================
