Inner Bible - Appendix B: How to Read Symbolically Without Losing Reverence

The symbolic method used in this book rests on exactly those commitments. It assumes that characters may reveal states of consciousness, that cities may reveal structures of collective and inward order, that movements such as exodus, exile, crucifixion and resurrection may disclose enduring realities of the soul and that Christ may be read as the revealed pattern of true humanity. Yet none of this means the text becomes infinitely elastic. Symbolic reading is strongest not when it is most exotic, but when it most clearly reveals why the Bible's forms recur, why its symbols travel from book to book and why its inward coherence is too strong to dismiss as accident.