Car Parts
I'm trying to re-teach my congregation how to read the Bible in order to pull out the core truths instead of finding individual verses to debate endlessly. There's a Brian McLaren illustration that I like to paraphrase:
We've been taught that the only way to think is to analyze, therefore the only way to read the Bible is analytically. Analysis is fine, but it's also limited. Analysis can only break down things into smaller and smaller parts. To study matter, we had to break it down to it's most basic part. For a while, we thought the smallest particle was the atom. Then we discovered those are made of protons, electrons and neutrons. But those are made up of quarks. And now we have strings? Our scientific analysis has yielded tons of knowledge, but it suddenly too complicated to almost anyone to know what to do with. I think we make the same mistake when we relegate our study of the Bible to an analysis-only paradigm.
Think of it like a car. To understand a car through analyzation, you take it apart and look at it piece by piece...reducing it to a pile of hoses, belts, rings and other junk. Yes, you will learn a huge amount of information about that car...but you won't know how to use that car for its actual purpose...by analyzing, you'll never learn how to drive. We live in a world where, spiritually speaking, people are dying to learn how to drive. But sometimes all we're willing to model for them is how to change the oil. I yearn for a church that gives driving lessons instead of playing mechanic.
We've been taught that the only way to think is to analyze, therefore the only way to read the Bible is analytically. Analysis is fine, but it's also limited. Analysis can only break down things into smaller and smaller parts. To study matter, we had to break it down to it's most basic part. For a while, we thought the smallest particle was the atom. Then we discovered those are made of protons, electrons and neutrons. But those are made up of quarks. And now we have strings? Our scientific analysis has yielded tons of knowledge, but it suddenly too complicated to almost anyone to know what to do with. I think we make the same mistake when we relegate our study of the Bible to an analysis-only paradigm.
Think of it like a car. To understand a car through analyzation, you take it apart and look at it piece by piece...reducing it to a pile of hoses, belts, rings and other junk. Yes, you will learn a huge amount of information about that car...but you won't know how to use that car for its actual purpose...by analyzing, you'll never learn how to drive. We live in a world where, spiritually speaking, people are dying to learn how to drive. But sometimes all we're willing to model for them is how to change the oil. I yearn for a church that gives driving lessons instead of playing mechanic.
posted by Neal | 12:31 PM
2 Comments:
Neal,
I would also suggest the idea of NT Wright as reading the Bible as a play. He breaks the Bible down into Acts (act1, scene 2, etc.) and in between Act 5 and 6, we are the faithful participants in the Play.
Not only does this deconstruct our analysis of the Bible as blueprint, it reconstructs the power of story and the metanarrative as well as acting in the story as participants in God's story.
Thanks for the good thoughts Neal. I hope to do campus ministry as well one day.
Hi Neal! I was just wondering if this is the same Neal I knew that attended OC. Didn't you live in like Amarillo, TX for a while? (This is Franklin Wood, by the way.) If so, email me at mxwood2002@yahoo.com If not, you can still email! I enjoy your comments!
Post a Comment
<< Home