Projection of self

My good friend Levi, namesake of my own little boy, just left. I dropped him off at the airport.

One of the things that we talked about in the short time he was in town was the concept of "projection". Scot McKnight in his book, "The Blue Parakeet", describes a survey he gives to his Bible students in which they ascribe characteristics to Jesus. At the end of the exercise, the students can see that what they have done is ascribe their own moral characteristics to the character of Christ.

McKnight goes on to say that is how we often read the Bible....we all want to be right, so we project our own morality into the Bible. Of course, that's dangerous because it really needs to be the other way around. I'm not done with the book yet, but I don't see that he is denying our ability to interpret scripture. Nor does he ever declare that there is a right (or wrong) way to read the Bible. He simply asks that we be aware of projecting ourselves into the reading.

Levi, a former pastor, used various examples from his own ministry and from other writings.....he added more books to my list....that confirm this "projection" fact.

What do you think?