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Both the Bible and the Constitution have the status of "Great Code," but each of these important texts is controversial as well as enigmatic. They are asked to speak to situations that their authors could not have anticipated on their own. In this book, one of our greatest religious historians brings his vast knowledge of the history of biblical interpretation to bear on the question of constitutional interpretation. 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.
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Interpreting the Bible & the Constitution
Interpreting the
Bible Constıtutıon
& the
Jaroslav Pelikan A John W. Kluge Center Book Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Yale University Press
New Haven and London
Published with assistance from the Louis Stern Memorial Fund. Copyright 䉷 2004 by Yale University. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Designed by Sonia L. Shannon. Set in Galliard type by Binghamton Valley Composition. Printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pelikan, Jaroslav Jan, 1923– Interpreting the Bible and the Constitution / Jaroslav Pelikan. p. cm. “A John W. Kluge Center book.” Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and indexes. isbn 0-300-10267-4 1. Bible—Criticism, interpretation, etc.—History. 2. Constitutional law—United States. I. John W. Kluge Center (Library of Congress) II. Title. bs500 .p45 2004 220.6'01—dc22 2003023274 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In memory of Edward Hirsch Levi (1911–2000) The influence of constitution worship. . . . gives great freedom to a court. It can always abandon what has been said in order to go back to the written document itself. It is a freedom greater than it would have had if no such document existed. . . . A written constitution must be enormously ambiguous in its general provisions. . . . A constitution cannot prevent change; indeed by permitting an appeal to the constitution, the discretion of the court is increased and change made possible. —An Introduction to Legal Reasoning
Contents
Preface
xi
1 Normative Scripture—Christian and American 䡵
A Personal Introduction
䡵
Great Code
䡵
“In Accordance with the Scriptures”
䡵
Christian Scripture
䡵
Constitutions and Other “Peoples of the Book”
䡵
American Scripture
䡵
The Interpretive Communities
䡵
Text and Context
䡵
“Binocular Vision”
2 Cruxes of Interpretation in the Bible and in the Constitution 38 䡵
Interpretive Imperatives
䡵
“Unless Someone Will Give Me the Clue”
䡵