The Dark Interval, by John Dominic Crossan
New students’ approaches to religious texts exhibit scant sensitivity to the complex recipes by which hearers and readers construct meaning. Yet interpretive skills are useful for making sense not only of sacred texts but of all texts, and of other communication tools as well. One book I keep selecting to introduce the richness and complexities of hermeneutics is 40 years old: John Dominic Crossan’s little gem The Dark Interval. In a hundred pages it boldly and engagingly introduces novices to a set of issues that impinge on the meaning and interpretation of religious texts.