How to Interpret Scripture

I have mainly used this blog as a place to keep track of my sermons over the course of the two years I have spent learning homiletics. And I know that my sermons are pretty dry reads, what livens them up in person is my Freudian tongue and tendency to burst into tears whenever I get excited. However, to the whole conversation of who is and who is out of bounds with Christ and with the Church, I want to add the idea that begins and ends all of my deliberations over Scripture.

"Whoever, then, thinks that he understands the Holy Scriptures, or any part of them, but puts such an interpretation upon them as does not tend to build up this twofold love of God and our neighbor, does not yet understand them as he ought. If, on the other hand, a man draws a meaning from them that may be used for the building up of love, even though he does not happen upon the precise meaning which the author whom he reads intended to express in that place, his error is not pernicious, and he is wholly clear from the charge of deception."
St. Augustine, On Christian Doctrine

Read the rest of Augustine here: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/augustine/ddc1.html

I think Augustine is pretty Orthodox, and a pretty straight forward read, but I have a degree in philosophy, so perhaps I am biased about that.