There’s a good article over at Modern Reformation about an issue that’s near and dear to me – biblical illiteracy. It’s by David Nienhuis, who is a professor of New Testament at Seattle Pacific University, and is written about his experience with incoming students, most of whom claim to be Christians.
I found this quote especially interesting:
Not long ago I met with a student who was struggling in one of my courses. When I asked her what she thought the trouble was, she replied, in a tone suggesting ever so slightly that the fault was mine, ‘Reading a lot is not part of my learning style.’ She went on to inform me that students today learned more by ‘watching videos, listening to music, and talking with one another.’ She spoke of the great growth she experienced in youth group (where she no doubt spent a lot of time watching videos, listening to music, and talking with people), but her ignorance of the Bible clearly betrayed the fact that the Christian formation she experienced in her faith community afforded her little to no training in the actual reading of Scripture.
In assessing why this is so, he examines the historical shift in the American church from knowledge to experience and from theology to morality.
But not only can we fault our recent history, we can fault our present methods, as well:
Several of my Bible survey students expressed their surprise and disappointment that ‘years of church attendance and AWANA Bible memory competitions’ never trained them to engage the actual text of the Bible. They weren’t trained to be readers; they were trained to be quoters.
Everyone involved in the teaching the Bible should give this a read.
