The "editing" business I was referring to is the reduction of one's problem to the size of one's model, so to speak. A pithy way to put it is, "If all one has is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail."
Or put another way, it's like placing a template down over reality, and everything that shows through is admitted as relevant to one's problem; but the template itself also occludes much from view, which is still very much a part of the reality under investigation.
I hope this makes sense. Sometimes the most obvious things are the most difficult to explain. Go figure!
Anyhoot, if the use of doctrinal templates is what constitutes a "method," then it seems to me it's a pretty bad one. FWIW.