While it's true that there's a long tradition of literary interpretation in Christianity, the faith, never, forget, is rooted in Judaism. And interpretation is a huge, huge aspect in Rabbinical lore, and you can see it in the new testament, too, it's just that the Church forgot it's history for a while. Even before science was around to refute claims the scipture was understood to be full of hidden and double meanings- when Jesus refers to all the prophecies regarding the Savior, if you actually go back and read the sections he's talking about they seem almost completely unrelated- for instance, from John;

"21They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. 22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. 23He who hates me hates my Father as well. 24If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: 'They hated me without reason.'"

But the actual law he's talking about here is just one of the Psalms of David, lamenting persecution by his enemies. There are reasons that men and women have spent their lives just re-reading one book- every line is considered divinely inspired and laced with many meanings. This is why there's so much fragmentation in Christianity; they rely upon different readings of the same words. Many of the most commonly accepted tenants of Christianity- Heaven and Hell, Jesus' divinity- aren't explicitly mentioned in the Gospels or the old testament at al.