We will accomplish this validation and expansion by:
1. Exploring various methods/practices of reading scripture (as well as other forms of literature) in order to appreciate and evaluate the interpretive theory and process, and
2. "Christianly" evaluating the readings that result from these various reading and interpretive strategies in terms of their fruitfulness and faithfulness in our life together as well as the ethical/doctrinal implications of each particular method. We will use as a model for this kind of evaluation the Wesleyan "Quadrilateral" (scripture, tradition, reason and experience).
The methods and practices of reading scripture we will survey include:
- the ways scriptural writers and characters interpret scripture
- examples of ancient/pre-modern interpetation in sermons
- examples of Wesleyan interpetation (Enlightenment) in his sermons
- the practice of Lectio Divina
- examples of literary criticism (from Alan Culpepper's Anatomy of the New Testament: A Study in Literary Design)
- evaluating modern and post-modern sermons and the ways preachers interpret and incorporate scripture to buttress an argument
- devotional reflections and readings in order to make explicit their interpretive methods
- examine some of the ways scripture is used in art - including movies, paintings, poems, songs, dramas, novels, and works of non-fiction
- introduce the various methods of historical criticism, including archaeology, history, anthropology, sociology and linguistics and textual study
- experience Biblical storytelling (dramatic reading of scripture) as a method of interpretation
- reading aloud and to ourselves
- dramatic reading - Biblical storytelling
- dramatizations
- Lectio Divina - praying the scriptures
- singing (and dancing) the scriptures
- hearing the scriptures in their original language
- scriptural commentary/reference and following a topical "chain"
- liturgical reading
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