{"id":1745,"date":"2020-12-12T07:42:43","date_gmt":"2020-12-12T13:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/?p=1745"},"modified":"2023-04-29T21:20:33","modified_gmt":"2023-04-30T02:20:33","slug":"enjoying-the-bible-as-literature-5-strategies-for-engaging-students-in-reading-the-canon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/2020\/12\/12\/enjoying-the-bible-as-literature-5-strategies-for-engaging-students-in-reading-the-canon\/","title":{"rendered":"Enjoying the Bible as Literature: 5 Strategies for Engaging Students in Reading the Canon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Guest article by Heidi Dean of Christian Schools International<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(See Jason’s article on CSI “7 Steps to Narrating the Bible”<\/a>!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In biblical studies we seek to cultivate the habits of reverence, humility, submission to the text, and other qualities of faithful scholarship. But I propose another goal should rise to the top: enjoyment. The enjoyment that students have in reading a novel, or an eerie poem, or an adventure epic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When students are engaging with the Bible<\/a>, we should hear laughter and gasps. We should see quizzical eyebrows and wide-eyed shock. I love to see students jumping out of their seats to be picked to identify a \u2018hidden\u2019 motif of Joshua. To see awkward blushes and grins, in unfolding the romance of Ruth and Boaz. To see shock and dismay over the violence of Genesis. And I had to laugh at my student\u2019s obvious frustration, annotating her way through the book of Judges, with its noted cycle of idolatry: \u201cOh no… This is so wrong… Oh why? … That was cruel… This is just sad… Be smart and think!… Not again!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Heidi<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My students read through the entire biblical canon<\/a> in community, and their literary enjoyment of it is a memory that will last. Whether visually depicting the imagery of a Psalm or orally narrating<\/a> the downward spiral of Genesis, students will remember Scripture as profound, holy, and<\/em> <\/em><\/strong>artistically compelling. St. Augustine quipped,\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPerhaps someone inquires whether the authors whose divinely-inspired writings constitute the canon, which carries with it a most wholesome authority, are to be considered wise only, or eloquent as well. A question which to me\u2026 is very easily settled. For where I understand these writers, it seems to me not only that nothing can be wiser, but also that nothing can be more eloquent.\u201d <\/p> On Christian Doctrine,<\/em> section 9<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Why have we often missed the literary beauty of the Scriptures? Why do we move so quickly to \u201cpersonal application,\u201d while failing to linger in the episodes and the larger, sweeping narrative? Many a theologian has noted that we throw out good reading skills<\/a> when it comes to the Bible\u2014cutting the text into bite-size daily chunks, reading without context in mind, failing to find the author\u2019s key themes and motifs.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have our modernity to blame. Theologian Peter Leithart depicts the Enlightenment and subsequent theological disputes as having moved evangelicals toward only half of the equation: unfolding the literal meaning and the moral application. But in Rehabilitating the Quadriga<\/a>, Leithart explains that modern readers have missed out on the riches of Scripture by overlooking the medieval fourfold approach. We have ignored allegorical (or typological) reading and anagogical (or forward-looking reading, in light of final things). He urges us to recover more ancient ways of reading Scripture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Many modern advocates of theological interpretation of scripture are seeking to revive the more ancient, literary and typological approach to Scripture, and the good news is that we can implement this in K-12 Bible classes, even without personal training in the field. We can apply best-practices from teaching other<\/em> literature as we study the canon. Here are 5 practical tactics to cultivate an enjoyment of scripture through a literary approach:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1. Annotating a Reader Bible <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This methodology revolves around close-reading and annotating of the text, so it is crucial that students have their own copy of a simple pew Bible or reader Bible to serve as their consumable textbook. Most reader Bibles are published in 4-6 volumes to complete the canon, and they are available in most translations. Students will build a personal library of the whole biblical canon. The embossed hardcover on these reader Bibles simply say \u201cPentateuch\u201d or \u201cPoetry,\u201d but inside, the Bible looks like a novel or set of poems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Students are taught to treat this book as the valuable resource it is\u2014to mark it, underline, and annotate neatly in pencil. A black-and-white composition book completes the required resources. Students will add quotes to this commonplace book<\/em> over the six years that they read through the canon. It is a solid setup for a literary approach: a hardcover \u201cnovel\u201d plus a growing journal of quotations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n