Story

I struggled to come up with a name for this one. Story fits best – much better than scriptures, I believe, because of the dusty distance that inevitably attaches itself to the traditional use of that word (and is there any other way to use that word). When we speak of scriptures, they become an object (to read, to study, or, most often, to wield). But a story (think, “This is my story, this is my song”) read us, which is the whole point, I believe. The scriptures are a means to an end, and the end is not knowledge, or even wisdom, but a catalyst to encounter the holy.

Story is both a noun and a verb. To story is to both tell and to be enfolded in the story. We (all of us, not just the Christians) are a storied and a storying people, and our stories become powerful tools to understand and to shape our experience, our memory, and the dreams that become our living present. This majestic collection of stories welcomes all to join in the circle and to see themselves in the old stories that continue to unfold.

That said, here are my (always tentative and powerfully hopeful) ideas of places for disciples to fruitfully explore in this holy and continuing story of love and grace and hope:

  1. Navigating the Canon – books of the Bible

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  2. How the Bible came to be
  3. Genres in the Canon
  4. Two movements: What? And So What?
  5. Lectionary
  6. Lectio Divina
  7. Jewish History
  8. Intertestamental History: Maccabees, Hasmoneans, and the Ptolemies
  9. The world of Jesus
  10. Early Christian History
  11. Hebrew Bible: Torah, Neviim, and Ketuvim
  12. Christian Testament: Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypse
  13. Forms of Biblical criticism: form, redaction, source, and literary
  14. Topical chains (Thompson)
  15. Using Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance for word studies
  16. Commentaries and the line between information and interpretation
  17. The responsibility of interpretation – how do you read? Discernment & (faithful) Disagreement
  18. Memorization and scripture songs
  19. Biblical storytelling
  20. Biblical translations and paraphrases: dynamic equivalency
  21. Two schools of wisdom in scripture
  22. Exodus and Exile
  23. Psalms and Hebrew poetry
  24. Tabernacle and Temple
  25. Biblical Geography
  26. Paul’s Missionary Journeys
  27. One Year Bible – systematic reading plans
  28. The Septuagint, Vulgate, and King James
  29. Apocrypha
  30. Chapter and versification
  31. Study Bible and cross references
  32. Jewish Feasts
  33. Hebrew scripture quotes in the Christian Testament
  34. The Kings and Chronicles
  35. Synoptic Gospels and Gospel parallels
  36. The canon within the canon
  37. Manuscript traditions, scribes, and the Dead Sea scrolls
  38. The Jesus Seminar and the quest for the historical Jesus
  39. The Bible and the Koran
  40. The Bible and the Book of Mormon
  41. Multiple audiences for scripture: original (narrative), written/spoken, all subsequent readers/ practitioners