What is structuralism?

Answer

Structuralism is the concept that individuals attribute meaning by recognizing the distinctions between fundamental ideas. This suggests that the arrangement resulting from the interaction of individual elements offers the appropriate framework for communication and comprehension. Structuralism has been utilized in various fields, particularly in language and literature, including biblical literature. It is regarded as a significant viewpoint for deriving meaning from passages of the Bible, a process referred to as exegesis.

The main premise of structuralism is that individuals assign meaning to a core set of fundamental ideas, and communication is predominantly accomplished by highlighting the differences between those specific ideas; these distinctions and interactions shape an overarching structure. Essentially, the individual elements of a language, book, or narrative can only be comprehended correctly as components of a whole—based on their position within the structure.

Two illustrations involving color and sound can elucidate why structuralism is a pertinent concept when interpreting the Bible. In both instances, it is evident that individuals attribute meaning according to an assumed framework of concepts. When something is not clearly delineated within that framework, it becomes essentially imperceptible to individuals operating within that context.

Example 1. Scholars have examined how different societies perceive colors, depending on their native language, discovering that when a society lacks a specific term for a particular color, members of that society often do not “perceive” that color. They may excel at discerning subtle shade variations in other colors but disregard colors for which they lack a term or group them with other colors. Throughout most of human history, blue and green were simply viewed as variations of the same color, and the majority of cultures did not have a term for “blue.” Additionally, the English language lacked a term.

For the color orange until the 1540s, when the fruit called orange was imported from Asia to Europe—before then, the color was simply glossed over as “yellow-red.”

Example 2. The words rink and link are identical except for the letters r and l and the sounds they make. So, in English, the words rink and link are differentiated, perceived as separate sounds with separate meanings. However, in the Japanese language, there are no words distinguished solely by the change from an r sound to an l sound. Rather, Japanese features a single sound vaguely similar to both the English r and the English l. For this reason, native Japanese speakers may struggle to enunciate a clear l sound and a clear r sound when speaking English. In fact, they may find it extremely hard to hear the difference between those sounds. This is not because of deficient hearing or a faulty tongue but because the structure of language used by native Japanese speakers does not distinguish between those sounds.

In short, structuralism says that individual ideas are only meaningful when understood in context. Trying to read red letters on a red background is difficult, as there is not much to distinguish the individual letters from each other. Similarly, when an idea is not properly distinguished within a larger structure, it effectively does not exist for those operating under that structure. In order to grasp how a person assigns meaning to an idea, the idea must be understood within his particular structure.

This concept becomes useful in studying the Bible as it relates to context. According to the structuralist approach to Bible interpretation, in order to properly understand the intended meaning of the text, one must understand the structure of worldview and language the writer lived under. This is similar to how we must interpret the Bible according to its historical, cultural, and grammatical context.

So, for instance, when Jesus indicates that those who do not “hate” their father and mother cannot be His followers, He is emphasizing the need for absolute loyalty and devotion to Him above all other relationships.

Followers “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”, (Luke 14:26), this must be understood in the context of that era’s language and communication—structure. In that era, differences were typically expressed in binary terms. So, what modern readers see as hyperbole (exaggeration), Jesus’ original audience would have simply heard as a distinction: “You have to be willing to choose Me over everyone else.” Just as modern eyes see blue as a completely different color from green, but ancient eyes merely saw shades of green, modern readers parse “hatred” and “preference” as totally different ideas, while the ancient mind instead thought in shades of distinction.

In an example of the opposite effect, Scripture presents the concept of slavery in various situations. Most modern readers have a single, immediate (and negative) interpretation of the idea of slavery. This is mostly aligned with the chattel slavery of the Atlantic Slave Trade. However, in the culture Scripture was written in, there were many different forms of servitude. Most were not the racial, lifelong, inhuman form of slavery modern people think of. Just as English parses the difference between r and l, while Japanese does not, modern minds differentiate between “chattel slavery” and “indentured servitude,” while ancient language integrated those ideas using a single word. To assume that all references to “slaves” in the Bible imply the kind of slavery practiced in the U.S. prior to the Civil War, then, would be inappropriate simply on the basis of lingual structure.

As useful as structuralism is in properly interpreting the Bible, it can be abused or misapplied as much as any other philosophy. Taken too far, the idea that the parts cannot be understood without a clear understanding of their relationship to the whole can lead to misinterpretations.An inverted form of reductionism can be seen in extreme structuralism. While reductionism views the whole as simply the sum of the parts, extreme structuralism sees the parts as mere components of the whole. For example, claiming that all songs on the radio are identical because they share rhyming lyrics and a repeated chorus would be an inappropriate application of structuralism. Similarly, suggesting that all religions are alike because they involve a supernatural entity and rules would also be a form of structuralism.

When applied to the Bible, structuralism suggests that individuals attribute meaning based on a specific set of interconnected ideas. To comprehend the meaning of any text or communication, one must understand how these elements fit into the structure assumed by the speaker or writer. Therefore, interpreting a biblical text using a modern structure would involve drawing conclusions from the Scripture that the original author did not intend.