Snippet: "Self-centered Bible Reading"

snip·pet | ˈsnipit | noun a small piece or brief extract.

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Jackie Hill Perry’s answer to what challenges she and her husband are seeing in their ministry :

“{Preston], in his field in particular, would say the evangelical response to justice and social justice issues is such a stumbling block to a lot of the conversations that he has in the barber shop, on the street. …It’s an apologetics hinderance. …For me, especially since the lane I tend to fall in many times is sexuality, but also I’m at woman conferences all the time, there is a biblical illiteracy problem. I think there is self-centeredness to how we understand the Christian faith and even how we read the Bible.”

By the way, in my conversations I find that biblical illiteracy and/or a self-centered approach to Bible reading and interpretation (even by theologically literate people) is what makes conversations so difficult around biblical justice issues.

Self-centered ways of reading Scripture are hard to overcome for everyone. If we believe Genesis 3, that shouldn’t be hard to realize.

The conversation snippet has to do with apologetics in our age at the Jude 3 Project Podcast, the August 6 episode, discussing Hill’s new book, Holier Than Thou: How God’s Holiness Helps Us Trust Him. Definitely worth a listen to this episode, and now I have a new book to add to my list of books to read.

The Perry’s have a podcast I haven’t yet listened to called “Thirty Minutes with the Perrys.”

Snippet: Physical Bible vs. Digital Bible

snip·pet | ˈsnipit | noun a small piece or brief extract.

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Episcopal priest and theologian Fleming Rutledge on why she wishes people used their Bibles in church services and in reading at home:

“When everyone is reading from a printed sheet no one is learning where in the Bible the passage is located, or how it is linked to what comes before it and after it.”

She’s talking specifically about printing the sermon text in the worship guide. She doesn’t like it.

She doesn’t like it for the same reason I don’t like to put the main text we’re studying on slides. I want people to use their own Bibles.

Anyone new to the Bible who starts with and primarily uses a digital Bible is at a significant deficit. Their ability to get the storyline of Scripture will always be negatively impacted.

It’s so important to see where you are in the physical thing as you read. It gives perspective. Once you’ve handled a paper Bible for years, you instinctively know where you are at in the physical thing when using a digital thing.

Rutledge is quoted by Wesley Hill in a post titled “Bring Your Bible to Class—or Church.”

Photo by Andrik Langfield on Unsplash