Black Liberationist and activist, Frederick Douglass, "We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and the future."

When considering an interpretative methodology in America:

The Ahl al-Sunnah wa'l-Jama'ah whose very genesis had been on an assumed plea of moderation,

mediation and synthesis—which is an on-going process —and who, indeed, actually functioned as such a force

in the early stages, themselves became, after the content of their system had fully developed, authoritarian, rigid

and intolerant. Instead of continuing to be a synthesizing and absorbing force they became transformed into a party-

among-parties with all its rejecting and exclusivist attitudes.            Fazlur Rahman : Islamic Methodology in History

(In the early stages of Islam, the madhhabs were ) far from a myopic or rigid body of law, the Sunni Shariah tradition thus became a swirl of stunning diversity. Not only were there four distinct schools of law, but each school also had a range of opinions on any one question. Furthermore, the recorded legacies of the extinct madhhabs of scholars like Tabari and the ancient opinions of scattered Companions and Successors added to the body of legal knowledge. The statement ‘the Shariah says…’ is thus automatically misleading, as there is almost always more than one answer to any legal question. 

Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy Jonathan A.C. Brown

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“Sharia is all about wisdom and achieving people’s welfare in this life and the afterlife. It is all about justice, mercy, wisdom, and good. Thus, any ruling that replaces justice with injustice, mercy with its opposite, common good with mischief, or wisdom with nonsense, is a ruling that does not belong to the Sharia, even if it is claimed to be so according to some interpretation.”

— Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 1347)

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The most important responsibility of the madhhabs was and continues to be the job of directing the Muslim World-Wide Community to the ‘Middle Course’ and away from extremist interpretations such as the Wahabbi / Salafi extreme viewpoints, which is why they argue to rid the ummah of the madhhabs and only rely on their scholars for interpreting religious texts. We, in America, can be eclectic, we have an opportunity to choose the best opinions from all of the madhhabs on any given topic and tailor our practice to be in harmony with our contemporary circumstances.

A very good place to start is : The Moderation of Abu Hanifah

Mahmoud Andrade Ibrahim