Ten Commandments for Reading the Bible

This chapter provides some advice for how to approach the Bible. It first discusses some general dos and don'ts of biblical literacy before providing ten commandments on how to read or use the Bible. First, is to recognize that the Bible does not equate to God and to beware of making the Bible itself an object of worship. The chapter urges readers to be mindful of the Bible's translations and its logical gaps and not to dismiss the wisdom and knowledge of previous Bible scholars. It argues that the Bible should not be used to harm others or to presume to issue divine judgment on others. And it warns against carelessly and simplistically interpreting the Bible, or taking biblical texts out of context. The final commandment is to take the Bible seriously without being blind to its more uncomfortable and unsavory aspects.

Television and the Bible in American Popular Culture

This essay examines the Bible in American television, focusing in particular on the twenty-first century. It suggests that there are three broad categories which may helpfully illustrate and encompass the diverse ways in which the Bible appears and/or is utilized: (1) educating about the Bible (e.g., documentaries); (2) dramatizing the Bible (renditions of biblical stories); and (3) drawing on the Bible (the impact or use of the Bible in other television programs). Examining each of these in turn, this essay highlights the prevalence of the Bible on television and thus in American popular culture more generally, as well as considering some of the myriad ways in which it has been read, used, and interpreted. In particular, it endeavors to show how the medium can function as a tool for both reflecting and promoting levels of biblical literacy among its audience.

Teaching Bible and American Popular Culture

Educators often need help to design courses that lead to transformative learning. This paper outlines a practical approach to course design drawing on the scholarship of teaching and learning, the Association of American Colleges & Universities, and current work in the field. Starting with relevant and urgent student learning outcomes (such as biblical literacy and spiritual quest), effective courses build a series of learning opportunities that enable students to discover content, construct meaning, and create something new. By engaging in the Bible with, in, and alongside of popular culture, students learn more about the Bible, culture, and the relationship between the two. The context of a meta-question requires them to reflect on such essential human concerns as the nature of authority, the construction of identity, and the contextualization of truth. In this way, learning becomes transformative.

Lectio continua and biblical literacy within the Methodist Church

Lectio continua – preaching through a single biblical book – tends to be less prominent in British Methodism than following a lectionary or a thematic series. In a context of declining biblical literacy, however, lectio continua is a fruitful way of encouraging engagement with Scripture. Following a discussion of the challenges of biblical illiteracy, this article argues that lectio continua can promote biblical literacy through its focus on whole books of Scripture, its consideration of the context of biblical passages, and its invitation to close readings of biblical texts – all key skills for reading the Bible well. A case study demonstrates how such an approach could be applied to preaching through 1 John.

Learning a Form of Life

Focusing on the space of churches, Chapter 2 explores the practices through which adults seek to form children as subjects able to ‘engage with God’ in Sunday school and Kids Church and the ways in which the children responded to these practices across each of the three churches studied in this book. Focusing on the desired formation of children provides insight into the morally charged ideals of personhood articulated in each church, and draws out the particular emphasis on biblical literacy and ideals of submission to God expressed in conservative evangelicals’ work with children in comparison with the emphasis on ideals of friendship with Jesus that is privileged at St George’s and Riverside. The author argues that despite these differences, the techniques of formation used in each church aim to shape the children as reflexive individuals, able to reflect on their actions in the light of church teachings.

Conclusion

Classical and biblical tradition, with its distinctive pursuits of wisdom, is today culturally contested and intellectually marginal. It no longer serves as the basis for educational programs, as it once did; it is out of step with modern philosophies and forms of life in which distinctive fields of human concern—sacred obligation, scientific understanding, social order, and personal morality—are programmatically held apart from one another. As classical and biblical literacy fades, it is nevertheless possible to discern the spectral presence of traditional wisdom in modern culture and to see new bids for wisdom, not as a simple rejection of the tradition but rather as a sign of its enduring relevance.

Religious Literacy in American Education

Popular definitions of religious literacy don’t capture the reality of lived religion in a plural age. Using language as a metaphor for religion, this chapter differentiates between religious fluency among co-religionists and the ability to read and interpret the vocabulary of the “language” of the religious other. Whereas advocates for biblical literacy and world religions courses often reinforce an essentialist understanding of religion that presents only the “standard” version of a language, this chapter suggests an alternative 3B Framework that encourages students to consider how the interrelationship of belief, behavior, and belonging creates religious “dialects.” A pedagogy built around the 3B Framework encourages students to compare and contrast the construction of religious languages in a linguistic mode, analyzing the importance of belief, behavior, and belonging for individuals or communities. This framework opens possibilities for inter-religious dialogue between “multilingual linguists” who can engage the most meaningful aspects of interlocutors’ religious identity.

Taking a Text

This chapter examines bible reading and referencing in the early nineteenth century, with particular emphasis on reference as an essential aspect of Protestant religious authority. It first provides an overview of literacy, biblical literacy, and bible reading in early America before discussing the increased availability of reference materials as well as indexes and concordances as part of early national bible culture. It then considers how indexical materials became the primary means of locating scripture texts among all classes of American bible readers and how the resources of biblical citation were utilized by preachers during the period. It concludes with a discussion of the trajectory of Ellen Harmon White's career, and more specifically how she harnessed the print-bible culture of the period to parlay her visionary authority into a fully articulated bible-based authority.

The American Children’s Bible

Children’s Bibles have been among the most popular and influential types of religious publications in the United States, providing many Americans with their first formative experiences of the Bible and its stories. This chapter explores the variety of ways in which children’s Bibles have adapted, illustrated, and retold Bible stories for children throughout US history. Children’s Bibles served a variety of ends, such as teaching biblical literacy, instilling a fear and respect for God’s power and judgment, calling children to salvation in Jesus Christ, modeling moral virtues, and reframing Bible stories as fun and engaging stories that portray a friendly God who cares for children.

In defense of biblical literacy in English and American literary studies

This study seeks to address a nationwide lack of concern for biblical education in English literary studies. More specifically, it evaluates and offers potential remedies for the current state of biblical illiteracy within the academy. By showing the academic consequences of textual misinterpretation that derive from biblical illiteracy, this essay hopes to educationally and pedagogically promote the adherence of biblical scholarship in English literature. Through biblical explications of select representational texts, this also study intends to effectively contribute to efforts that value foundational biblical education in secular literary academia.