So…I’ve been MIA for awhile. First, I was finishing up my master’s and I thought things would be better once I graduated, but then I started my new job and summer started in Chicago, and tada, here we are a few months post-less. I managed to keep up with the readings until about 3 weeks ago, but I wanted to give a little update and try to start posting regularly again.
I’m trying to come up with ways to keep up with the readings better. One way I thought of would be to skip the New Testament sections of the assigned readings, for now, at least. Reading Paul’s letters (we’re in 1 and 2 Corinthians) one chapter at a time, sometimes days apart, is pretty difficult. It’s hard to see the flow of his letters and catch the inconsistencies. Also, they rarely talk about the NT sections in much detail at the weekly bible study. Then I’d somehow catch up on reading the NT chapters all in one sitting? Just a thought. Generally, though, I’d rather just keep up with the readings as normal.
At this past week’s bible study, we went over (again, I believe…) the “methods of biblical interpretation.” Which means reading the passages in five stages: 1) initial reading, 2) historical context, 3) interaction, 4) topic setting, and 5) interpretation. I’m pretty sure we did this before, so…wasn’t all that into it. But, I found the class particularly difficult because it seemed that no one else in the room could really follow the method as the pastor laid it out. I’m finding increasingly (and this is not just in bible study, it goes well beyond that) that people really just don’t listen. They form an idea and they just ram everything they hear into their own interpretation. And I guess, particularly with the bible, people really want to hear what they want to hear and they don’t really care whether the particular passage says what they think or not. I think people want every single part of the bible to be some profound treatise on life, faith, God, etc. But, as I’ve been reading through, I’m learning that there are plenty of sections, particularly in Paul’s letters, where it’s not about that, it’s just about the struggles of establishing a church with competing leaders. The passage we read, 2 Corinthians 4:5-12 is just really about Paul trying to convince the Corinthians that God’s power is bigger than just Paul’s teachings, but people in the class kept wanting to read into the pronouns and broaden the scope of the “we” to “all people” rather than just “Paul and his fellow leaders.” This seems like a common problem. Are there venues out there that are a step or two below seminary/theology-level analyses, but three or four steps above the “general public?”
ohthatswhatitsays 