During the ootle15 Hangout on Air, I tweeted "We need to be creating an audience for academic biblical studies among church members." Nyasha Junior responded: "I think that pastors can be the bridge."
We hope that pastors can be the bridge between academia and the congregation. Otherwise, why would Dr. Lester be laboring so earnestly to construct this cutting-edge course on Ostensively-An-Introduction-to-the-Old-Testament-But-Really-an-Introduction-to-the-Tanak? Why else would I be struggling to master communication technologies that I am temperamentally and temporally unsuited for, if I didn't think that Garrett students could go out into the highways and the byways and help people to become as enthralled with our canon as I am?
However, I am skeptical, because I know how long professors have been training seminarians in these Bible study methods.
I can't help but feel that if pastors were going to be the bridge, it would have happened by now.
If pastors had been being that bridge, people doing Bible study at their churches would now be casually conversant with the historical-literary critical method, instead of still believing that Moses wrote the Pentateuch.
If it hasn't happened by now, there must be something going on to prevent it. It would be nice to know what that is.
Excellent post! Dr. Junior's tweet really stood out to me too, and I am glad you took the time to write something up.
ReplyDeleteI think that anything is possible, it just takes some effort. We're in an entirely new era, organized religion is really calling out for reform. Perhaps pastors have not been great at building bridges in the past - but it's not too late for us to begin!
Great insights.