Guidelines for Bible Study in an Interfaith Age

Can our Bible study methods function to form us as Christians and enable us to participate authentically in the Multi-faith Age in which we live?  The following guidelines attempt to reflect on how our methods might by “tuned” in ways that are congruent with the world that we, as Christians, find ourselves where we must struggle to witness to and dialogue with devotees of other great religious traditions.

Celebrating the Textual Diversity: Resist the re-mature temptation to harmonize or smooth over textual discrepancies or disagreements.

Broadening the Conversational Resources: Utilize a wide variety of commentaries and studies, but always remember that your own feelings and intuitions are an important source as well. Repeatedly return to the stubborn fact that these texts are finally stories, therefore give some priority to methods of literary analysis when reflecting on the textual depth.

Avoiding the Contextual Confusion: Read these texts through Jewish Eyes. Resist the premature superimposition of later Christian understandings and theological assumptions on what are primarily Jewish texts.

Acknowledging the Religio-political Frame of Reference: As you engage the texts, seek to recognize the plain meaning of terms such as empire, legion, Christ, and gospel as “proto-political” language used self-consciously by the writers. Stand in the shoes of First Century Jews experiencing “cognitive dissonance” between the promise of being a chosen people with a strong national identity and the reality of Roman rule.

[Note: These principles have been revised several times. This is the latest version.]