{"id":3935,"date":"2018-01-17T08:59:46","date_gmt":"2018-01-17T14:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/?p=3935"},"modified":"2018-01-17T08:59:46","modified_gmt":"2018-01-17T14:59:46","slug":"have-bible-quoters-replaced-bible-readers-russell-moore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/?p=3935","title":{"rendered":"Have Bible Quoters Replaced Bible Readers? – Russell Moore"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Have Bible Quoters Replaced Bible Readers<\/a>?<\/h1>\n
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January 16, 2018<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Most readers of this site will share my angst about biblical illiteracy. I think we sometimes assume, though, that this illiteracy is simply a problem in the broadest sweep of cultural Christianity. It is there, to be sure. That\u2019s why Christian bookstores (or their digital equivalents) don\u2019t sell many books on the meaning of justification in Galatians, but tons of books with diet tips from Ezekiel or channeled messages from heaven. The problem, though, is far bigger than that.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never really known how to identify the scope of the biblical illiteracy facing us until I read this past weekend a sentence that perfectly articulated what I had noticed, in David Nienhuis\u2019 very helpful new book\u00a0A Concise Guide to Reading the New Testament<\/a>\u00a0(Baker). Speaking of the students in his college New Testament classes, Nienhuis writes that they struggle with the biblical material \u201cbecause they have been trained to be Bible quoters, not Bible readers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is exactly right.<\/p>\n

Biblical interpretation in American evangelicalism tends to be trickle-down, from the entrepreneurial ministry pioneers to everyone else.<\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a>\u00a0Share<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nienhuis locates part of the problem in the way higher criticism has sought to remove the Bible from the terrain of the church to the alleged expertise of those able to discern the \u201coriginal context\u201d in ways novel to the reading of the church through the ages. But the problem goes beyond this, he notes. The problem is also the way the Bible is used in churches.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of my students attend popular non-denominational churches led by entrepreneurial leaders who claim to be \u2018Bible believing\u2019 and strive to offer sermons that are \u2018relevant\u2019 for successful Christian living,\u201d he writes. \u201cUnfortunately, in too many cases, this formula results in a preacher appealing to a short text of Scripture, out of context, in order to support a predetermined set of \u2018biblical principles\u2019 to guide the congregants\u2019 daily lives. The only Bible these students encounter, sadly, is the version that is carefully distilled according to the theological and ideological concerns that have shaped the spiritual formation of the lead pastor.\u201d<\/p>\n

I would say the problem goes far beyond non-denominational churches, or even entrepreneurial churches, as biblical interpretation in American evangelicalism tends to be trickle-down, from the entrepreneurial ministry pioneers to everyone else.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the end-result according to Nienhuis: \u201cThey have the capacity to recall a relevant biblical text in support of a particular doctrinal point, or in opposition to a hot spot in the cultural wars, or in hope of emotional support when times get tough. They approach the Bible as a sort of reference book, a collection of useful God-quotes that can be looked up as one would locate words in a dictionary or an entry in an encyclopedia.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the Bible is God\u2019s Word, we must raise up people who don\u2019t merely believe the Bible but also know what it says.<\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a>\u00a0Share<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He continues: \u201cWhat they are not trained to do is to read a biblical book from beginning to end, to trace its narrative arc, to discern its main themes, and to wonder how it shapes our faith lives today.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is not a matter of the educated versus the uneducated. The same problem exists among both. I have noticed people who were experts in the grammar of the Hebrew and Greek Bibles who didn\u2019t really get the flow of the old, old story. If the Bible, though, is God\u2019s Word, and it is, we must raise up people who don\u2019t merely believe the Bible but also who know what it says.<\/p>\n

The answer is not easy. Part of the problem is what Nienhuis mentions, the modeling of the use of Scripture in some teaching and preaching. Part of the problem is the larger cultural question of whether the distracted, fragmented modern mind any longer has the attention span to read a text (meaning a literary text, as opposed to a text message). And part of the problem is that in order to train people to read their Bibles, the church must be gathered more than just an hour or two a week. To engage with a narrative requires (pardon this metaphor, my paedobaptist friends) not just a sprinkling but an immersion in the text.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Have Bible Quoters Replaced Bible Readers? January 16, 2018 Most readers of this site will share my angst about biblical illiteracy. I think we sometimes assume, though, that this illiteracy is simply a problem in the broadest sweep of cultural … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dxA8-11t","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3936,"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3935\/revisions\/3936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}