Cultivating the Practice of Reading Scripture
by Joel Green
While teaching at a conference some years ago, I was startled when a
participant announced that he could not imagine how any Republican could claim
to take the Bible seriously. Not long afterward, I witnessed a repeat
performance in another setting, except in this case we were told that
Republicans alone read Scripture correctly. This reminds me of what I imagine
to be a first-century “battle for the Bible”: Pharisees, Christ-followers, and
Sadducees, all reading the same Scriptures but reading them quite differently,
and reaching diverse conclusions about the nature of faithfulness to God. How
can this be?
Clearly, a lot has to do with our formation as readers of
Scripture and not only with the words written on the page. This underscores the
importance of reading Scripture as a “practice,” since the idea of “practice”
assumes circularity: Formed by our reading of Scripture, we become better
readers of Scripture. This is not because we become better skilled at applying
biblical principles. The practice of reading Scripture is not about learning
how to mold the biblical message to contemporary lives and modern needs.
Rather, the Scriptures yearn to reshape how we comprehend our lives and
identify our greatest needs. We find in Scripture who we are and what we might
become, so that we come to share its assessment of our situation, encounter its
promise of restoration, and hear its challenge to serve God’s good news.
Paradoxically, perhaps, cultivating the practice of reading
Scripture first prioritizes Christian formation more generally. This is because
there is no necessary, straight line from reading the biblical materials to
reading them Christianly; sharply put, one can be “biblical” without being
“Christian.”
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