Learning to Fish: Part 2—New Questions/New MethodsPosted on December 9, 2014 by David RhoadsWhen I taught at seminary, we had a required course that actually focused on method. The course was called “New Testament Interpretation.” It was a methods course that focused on the ways we go about constructing potential meanings of a text in its first century context. Ironically, all the students assumed from the title that we were going to interpret the New Testament for them by telling them what it meant. They were disappointed in the class….
Learning to Fish: Part 1—Why Methods Matter!Posted on December 1, 2014 by David RhoadsThis is like the old saw: Give a hungry person a fish and they will get hungry again. Teach them how to fish and they can feed themselves for the rest of their lives. What happens when that analogy is applied to learning? Provide someone with knowledge, and they will not learn how to learn on their own. They will always have to go to an expert to learn. They will be dependent upon the teacher, dependent on secondary sources. However, if you teach students how to learn with a method, they will be able to be independent learners of their own….
The Bible and Human Transformation—Part III: Miracles and Human TransformationPosted on November 10, 2014 by Yung Suk KimOften students of the New Testament do not find transformative lessons in miracle stories in the Bible. Usually, miracles are rendered God’s supernatural power that makes impossible things happen. But miracle stories also involve human issues or human responses. Therefore they can be read as a story of human transformation…
The Bible and Human Transformation—Part II: Jesus’ Parables and Human TransformationPosted on October 31, 2014 by Yung Suk KimBecause of the parable’s nature as such, it has double-entendre. On the one hand, students of the New Testament may find parables to be easy to understand because they are taken from everyday life. On the other hand, however, they are very difficult to understand because parables involve figurative language which needs careful attention and skill from the reader. It is here, at the points of overcoming difficulties in understanding the text, where we find their power unto human transformation….
The Bible and Human Transformation—Part I: The Nature of the BiblePosted on October 24, 2014 by Yung Suk KimNo matter how disparate biblical writings may be, the bottom line is that they are life stories involving some sort of human transformation, whether it is personal or communal change: a change in terms of human behavior, a change in terms of human attitude or a change in terms of society…