Within the process of meaning-making, what is meant by the term interpretive community?

Since you cannot interpret absolutely, you can interpret forever." 1 This statement encapsulates one of the major tenets of reader response criticism-namely, that the interpretive process is saturated with subjectivity because meaning is ultimately found in the reader rather than the author or the text. Though often labeled as a postmodern method in textbooks on hermeneutics, the principle of reader response is much older. For example, Augustine states that he would rather have a reader respond to the truth he or she found in his writing than have the reader be able to duplicate his understanding of that truth (Confessions XII.xxxi.42). 2 Nonetheless, reader response continues to gain momentum in contemporary biblical interpretation, and raises the issue of whether readers of the Bible can have interpretive certainty. Stated in epistemological terms, how do readers understand Scripture? How do they arrive at textual meaning? Does an ancient text even have an objective meaning that...

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