Literally?

If there's one Hankism that drives me a bit crazy as a writer and English major, it's his use of the word literally. The word means as it is, without exaggeration or embellishment, factual, actual, as we see on the Merrian Webster website:

lit·er·al - adjective \ˈli-t(ə-)rəl\

1 a : according with the letter of the scriptures
1 b : adhering to fact or to the ordinary construction or primary meaning of a term or expression : actual <liberty in the literal sense is impossible — B. N. Cardozo>
1 c : free from exaggeration or embellishment <the literal truth>
1 d : characterized by a concern mainly with facts <a very literal man>
2: of, relating to, or expressed in letters
3: reproduced word for word : exact, verbatim <a literal translation>

lit·er·al·ly - adverb \ˈli-tə-rə-lē, ˈli-trə-lē, ˈli-tər-lē\

1: in a literal sense or manner : actually <took the remark literally> <was literally insane>
2: in effect : virtually <will literally turn the world upside down to combat cruelty or injustice — Norman Cousins>

Usage Discussion of LITERALLY

Since some people take sense 2 to be the opposite of sense 1, it has been frequently criticized as a misuse. Instead, the use is pure hyperbole intended to gain emphasis, but it often appears in contexts where no additional emphasis is necessary.

The way Hank Hanegraaff uses it, what he is talking about is the literary interpretation. The Bible is literature. It is not a mere textbook filled only with facts and rules. It tells stories and relates historical narratives; it includes prophetic and apocalyptic books; it contains songs and collections of wise sayings. On top of that, it makes rich use of imagery and figures of speech - Jesus is the lamb of God, God is our father, the church is the bride of Christ,

Again, from the Merriam Webster site:

lit·er·ary - adjective \ˈli-tə-ˌrer-ē\

1 a: of, relating to, or having the characteristics of humane learning or literature
1 b: bookish
1 c: of or relating to books
2 a: well-read
2 b: of or relating to authors or scholars or to their profession

What most of us would call the literal meaning of Scripture is what Hanegraaff labels woodenly literal in contrast to the literary meaning of Scripture that he labels literal. (Confused?)

Naive Reading

One danger the Roman Catholic Church foresaw in giving the average believer access to the Bible in their own language was that people would misinterpret things - not that this didn't also happen with the Latin Bible, but at least people who could read Latin had a formal education.

And they were right. While Protestant Reformers tended to be well educated and understand how to read the Bible as literature and interpret Scripture in the light of other Scripture, some of the less educated went off the deep end based on a very literal reading of the Bible.

I think this is due in part to concrete thinking. When reading science fiction or fantasy, we understand that serpents might speak, dragons might be real, and so forth. But when reading the Bible, some people believe that the serpent formed human words and that a real dragon will appear at the end of the world. They forget that every day we use analogies, metaphors, similies, and other figures of speech - and so did those who wrote the Bible.

It's understandable that young children would take things literally, and that uneducated adults might do the same thing, but educated adults should know better. Sometimes the Bible literally means exactly what it says, but sometimes it uses figures of speech to make it point, and that's exactly the issue Hank is dealing with when he talks about taking the Bible literally but not woodenly.