World of the Text

Just an additional thought. I find that Ladd, along with a lot of biblical scholars, gets lost in the world of the text. Text is prime and the real world is secondary. At least that is how it feels to me. All this talk of what the text really asserts or clearly shows feels to me like it is an inside conversation. The problem I have with this is that it is micro thinking, that is thinking so focused on a narrow scope that it easily becomes oblivious to its presuppositions. I also feel like it needs to have references outside of the text. The real world must have some say, because it does have a say even if we do not acknowledge it. For me the Bible must be in dialogue with real life or it is of no value (and can even be part of the problem). The one biblical scholar I find who does not do this (at least in what little I've read from him) is Brueggemann. Maybe I want a Ladd who is more like Brueggemann?