Many scholars today believe their critical insight develops in proportion to increasing skepticism. texts that were formerly thought to contain real information are now suspect because they have been constantly reinterpreted by successive generations of historians.
-Rene Girard, The Scapegoat, p.1
Here is wishing the folks that think the text means nothing would all just quit and go home. It reminds me of these comments on “trivial criticism”.
There often seems to be a competition among higher academics as to who can explain away or demythologize away the most meaning from their topic of study. This would be self-defeating without tenure. Witness Bishop Spong’s comments a while back that the only reason he is still a Christian (on paper) is he doesn’t want to loose his job.