We have induced upon ourselves a doglike mind

C.S. Lewis on factual realism

I see this doglike mind a lot in biblical interpretation. Pretty much everything in scripture points to something else, yet we have constricted our understanding of these “fingers” so greatly that the only imagination allowed is the most obvious. If you try to consistently and comprehensively read scripture as scripture itself models, you will be accused of adding to God's word. For instance, if you try to ask how to apply Paul’s hermeneutic in Galatians 4 to scripture more broadly, you will be told that you can’t, because you’re not an apostle.

For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the handmaid, and one by the freewoman. Howbeit the son by the handmaid is born after the flesh; but the son by the freewoman is born through promise. Which things contain an allegory: for these women are two covenants; one from mount Sinai, bearing children unto bondage, which is Hagar. Now this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to the Jerusalem that now is: for she is in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mother. (Ga 4:22–26)

“Imitate me, as I imitate Christ,” Paul tells us—”except how we interpret scripture. You should do that completely differently. You’re all dog-brains.”