The Hermeneutics of Sacred Texts

Sor Juana engaged biblical and theological texts with remarkable interpretive freedom, offering her own readings while respecting their sacred status. She modeled how one can be simultaneously faithful and critical—a skill essential for authentic existence across traditions. Hermeneutics, the art of interpretation, becomes a bridge between tradition and innovation. Rather than treating sacred texts as closed systems requiring only literal obedience, this approach recognizes that meaning lives in the dialogue between text, reader, and context. For practitioners of multiple traditions, this framework legitimizes the experience of discovering new meanings in familiar teachings as you evolve. It acknowledges that authenticity sometimes means reading your inherited tradition in light of another, or discovering that two seemingly opposed texts address the same human truth differently. The hermeneutic approach replaces the either/or of fundamentalism or dismissal with the both/and of engaged, respectful interpretation.