A literal Biblical interpretation is associated with the
fundamentalist and evangelical hermeneutical approach to
scripture—the historical-grammatical method—and is used
extensively by Conservative Christians[disambiguation needed],
in contrast to the historical-critical method of liberal
Christians. The essence of this approach focuses upon the
author's intent as the primary meaning of the text.Literal
interpretation does place emphasis upon the referential aspect
of the words or terms in the text. It does not, however, mean a
complete denial of literary aspects, genre, or figures of speech
within the text (e.g., parable, allegory, simile, or metaphor).
Also literalism does not necessarily lead to total and complete
agreement upon one single interpretation for any given passage.
There are two kinds of literal interpretation, letterism and the
more common historical-grammatical method. Letterism attempts to
uncover the meaning of the text through a strict emphasis upon a
mechanical, wooden literalism of words