Why the model reader? My sense is that Eco’s understanding of reading takes us in just the right direction if we are interested in an engagement with Scripture that moves us beyond too narrow an interest in the voice or intent of the human author, that moves us beyond the restrictions placed on an implied reader, and that moves us in the direction of according privilege to the role of these texts in divine self-disclosure. Eco speaks of good reading as the practice of those who are able to deal with
Page 19