Threads from Henry's Web

Author: henry

  • Dave Black (and Charles King) on Greek Teaching Methods

    Dave Black notes the following:

    9:04 AM This morning Kyle Davis, one of my teaching assistants, sent me a link to this excellent essay: The Method of Teaching New Testament Greek (.pdf). On the several takeaways I got from reading it, this one is perhaps the most important:

    Extensive memorization produces improved strategies for memorization, but does not increase the ability to memorize. If the learner implements higher order learning patterns, learning becomes easier and more effective.

    Amen and amen! This is one reason I have reduced memorization to an absolute minimum in my own beginning grammar, Learn to Read New Testament Greek, and instead focus on teaching students basic principles of noun and verb morphology. Once you understand how language works, that information will stick with you a lot longer than had you simply memorized a long list of paradigms.

    So grateful for colleagues who teach Greek and who are open to newer methods of pedagogy and linguistic approaches to the language. Why make the subject any more difficult than it already is?

    My own experience is somewhat different than either Dave’s or that of the article author, as I’ve never taught a required Greek course. I did encounter students in required courses in both Greek and Hebrew when I was in graduate school. I had the recommendation of the professor as a tutor, and was frequently sought out in the hours before a test came up, which was normally too late for me to be of much help.

    Since then I have frequently taught either individual students or small groups, but for the most part these were people who really wanted Greek or Hebrew in order to make use of it.

    What does especially resonate with me from the cited article is the note about memorization. I grew up on memorization. We memorized extensive passages of scripture from the KJV in school. For example, I have recited Psalm 119 at one sitting, word perfect. That memorization didn’t make me a better memorizer. What helped me with learning was the simple process of consistently trying to understand what was going on and then fix it in memory through those relationships. Thus learning a system and then memorizing the minimum necessary makes great sense to me. It has made sense to my students as well.

    I am also a firm believer in reading quantities of text in the source language. I was introduced to reader’s grammars by Dr. Sakae Kubo, who edited an early edition for Greek, and I consider them a wonderful tool. Computer based tools replace them for many, but I still need to sit down at a desk from time to time in order to study. I don’t use such tools much now, but I do still have them on my shelves.

    The one item on which I’d disagree is on the value of translating English into Greek or Hebrew. I don’t push it a great deal, but several of my students have testified that it was helpful in fixing vocabulary in their memory.


  • The September Biblical Studies Carnival Episode III Posted

    … at Exploring Our Matrix. So many posts, so little time. Who can possibly keep up? But this blog is actually linked twice.

  • On Publishing Philippians: A Participatory Study Guide

    Philippians: A Participatory Study GuideThis post will contain reflections both on the recently released Philippians study guide and the series of which it is a part. I generally write such reflections after each book my company releases. So be warned—there are products discussed here!

    When I first created this blog I was the only author in the participatory study series. Making a book series grow and sell usually requires a great vision pursued relentlessly. This series, on the other hand, has grown and substantially improved its original vision.

    When I first wrote To the Hebrews: A Participatory Study Guide and Revelation: A Participatory Study Guide, I didn’t feel any great optimism that I could break into a very competitive market. People write Bible study guides all the time. Quality varies dramatically, and often the best sellers are those written by people with famous names.

    What I wanted was a system that brought together biblical scholarship, spiritual disciplines, accessibility to lay people, and a somewhat ecumenical approach. I must specify that my view of ecumenism is not homogenization, but rather a willingness to engage in respectful give and take and especially to look at multiple traditions when choosing sources and study materials.

    I wrote those two books myself, and I had an upcoming class in mind with each one. You can see by the design of the books that this was early in my own publishing experience. From the point of view of developing the company, I needed titles. With the process we use, I can produce study guides for my own use quite economically. My thought was that if these guides sold successfully it would be great, but I wouldn’t count on it, and I would put my efforts into finding authors with manuscripts of their own, not ones following a plan I had designed.

    In the event, not only have I taught from them myself more times than expected, but I’ve seen them sell quite a few more copies than I had thought possible. No, they aren’t threatening to be on anyone’s best seller lists, but they have definitely exceeded my initial expectations.

    A few years after I had released those first two guides Geoffrey Lentz approached me with  a study outline from the book of Luke. Geoffrey had invited me to teach one of his classes from my guide to Hebrews, and he liked the outline of the method, but also the proposed freedom for working within the framework. I liked his outline and his idea, and the result was The Gospel According to Saint Luke: A Participatory Study Guide.

    Geoffrey really rounded out the idea of the series by improving the presentation and tying the method more closely with lectio divina. He at first proposed including both a discussion of lectio divina and the introduction to the method that I had produced, but once I looked at his connections, I suggested we work together to combine the two. Participatory study and lectio divina are not identical; participatory study provides more of an emphasis on resources and critical questions, yet the two work together very well.

    Once I saw the completed study guide to Luke, I knew immediately that if I could find any more authors for the series, I would present that volume as the guide to how we would structure study guides.

    After Luke, Geoffrey and I got together and wrote Learning and Living Scripture: An Introduction to the Participatory Study Method. In that book, Geoffrey’s more pastoral concern and my more technical emphasis combine and lay out the method along with exercises.

    Since then we’ve introduced Ephesians: A Participatory Study Guide, by Bob Cornwall and most recently Philippians: A Participatory Study Guide by Bruce Epperly. Each new author has brought something unexpected to the method and to the particular book they present. I don’t want to describe one book or another as “best.” (I do plan to revise my two volumes to incorporate some features in layout and presentation learned from later volumes.)

    I had wondered just how well someone could take the basic framework and yet use their own gifts and emphases in producing an effective guide. I couldn’t have been more pleased when I read the following sentence in Bruce Epperly’s preface to Philippians: “Henry provided a vision for this study and gave me permission to work out the details in a way congruent with my gifts as a pastor, teacher, and spiritual guide.”

    This was not so much pleasing as a pat on the back, though I admit to being delighted when my work is appreciated. More than that, it indicates that someone whose gifts differ dramatically from my own was able to exercise those gifts within this framework and produce what is truly an exceptional study guide. I’ve gotten some comments from people who wonder about one statement or another. Bruce is a progressive theologian and an adventurous theological writer. But nobody has said it doesn’t challenge them to press boldly on toward the mark.

    I look at the way the series is developing—and there are several more volumes either in progress or in preliminary negotiations—and I’m truly amazed. I wish I could say I envisioned the quality of the people who would submit proposals for inclusion in the series, almost all of them with doctoral degrees and considerable experience teaching. I wish I could say I’d envisioned what’s happening to the series—but I’m delighted that the result is better than I ever imagined.

    I encourage you to take a look at this latest study guide. Not only will it challenge you to take a more serious look at the content of Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi, it will challenge you to take what you learn seriously and apply it in your own spiritual life. Each lesson starts by asking you to open yourself to the Spirit in some way and concludes by challenging you to carry what the Spirit has done out of the church or classroom and out into the world.

    I have been very pleased to publish every book I have published since I started Energion Publications, and I don’t want to take anything away from those books. Yet my heart is in getting the people in our church pews, not to mention those who rarely show up there, to learn the joy of exploring the scriptures while listening to the Spirit. Thus Philippians: A Participatory Study Guide will always have a special place in my heart. It does an extraordinary job of accomplishing that mission.

    There are review and evaluation copies of all the participatory study guides available, If you’re interested, e-mail me with the reason you want one, and I’ll take care of it.

  • When Robots Chat

    This is too much fun:

    HT: The Agitator, who suggests they should be hired as commentators by MSNBC and Fox News. I agree.

  • The Biblioblogs Strike Back

    James McGrath has posted episode two of the Biblical Studies Carnival, The Biblioblogs Strike Back. Fun!

  • Out of Context Comfort

    When I was in college studying Biblical Languages, my mother told me of an encounter with a biblical scholar who had corrected her somewhat forcefully on the use of a text. She had claimed Isaiah 49:25, “… I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children” and done so with reference to her own children.

    Now anyone who has studied Isaiah, and especially 2nd Isaiah, will recognize that this text is not addressed to parents whose children leave the church, and is not intended to promise that those children will certainly return and be saved. When my mother presented the issue to me, however, I looked at it a bit differently. In my view, the promises of return from exile are pardigmatic, and proclaim the nature of God as a saving God, one who seeks and saves the lost (Luke 19:10). So while the text doesn’t directly answer the question, it does point to a comforting promise of God’s faithfulness as a seeking God.

    That’s a theme carried forward from the Exodus, through the exile, and into the salvation stories of the New Testament that draw heavily on those stories in coming to understand the mission of Jesus as the Christ.

    So I felt that not only was it very harsh to correct someone in that particular fashion for the use of a particular verse, in one sense, the verse is quite applicable, even if the application isn’t that direct.

    I was reminded of this story when I read the post, You’re Taking That Out of Context! on The Good Book blog. I think the examples and the comments on handling them in that post are excellent. Those of us who get technical in our study of the Bible would do well to be careful with “the weaker brethren,” at least “weak” in our technical view, and avoid doing harm.

    I would draw one more lesson from such incidents, however. It is quite easy to be rigorous in our methodology of interpretation, and equally rigorous in critiquing others. It’s quite easy to give people the impression that they are not really capable of studying the Bible for themselves, and that any error they might make is of eternal import. We can make people afraid to look at the scriptures for themselves.

    Now there is an opposite error, or perhaps more than one. There are those who believe they have no need for scholars. Such people forget that the very translations they read, not to mention the source texts on which they are based, are produced by scholars who put in much painstaking effort. There are also those who believe it doesn’t really matter whether they are right or wrong, so long as they are expressing their own opinion.

    Somewhere between those views there is a good place, a place where one realizes the importance of pursuing accuracy, and yet is not afraid of the process of learning, in which one will certainly make errors. In this wonderful place, one would pursue accuracy and truth without living in fear of making a mistake.

    It is my hope that scholars can aim to make such a place of learning for those in the church who have not been privileged to spend as much time studying as they have.

     

  • Jon Morris at The Drowsy Poet

    Jon Morris playing at The Drowsy PoetI thought I’d give a bit of plug to my young friend Jon Morris. Last night he played and sang at The Drowsy Poet here in Pensacola. He’s working up to recording a new CD.

    Jody and I had a great time for two hours with a number of friends and some interesting music. You can learn more about Jon at jonmorrismusic.com.

  • On Roman Catholics and Scholarship

    One of the great benefits of owning a publishing company is that there are always a number of smart people who will answer my e-mails. Thus, when I saw the brouhaha about Michael Patton’s post calling ‘Roman Catholic scholarship’ an oxymoron, I remembered immediately that I have just contracted Dr. Robert LaRochelle to write a book on—guess what?—dialog between Catholics and Protestants. (The book is Crossing the Street, to be released in May, 2012).

    So I asked Bob if he’d write a response, and he graciously agreed. This morning, I published that response over at Energion.net. I’m linking it from here for two reasons. First, Energion.net is a site I’m developing, and I have more traffic here on my personal blog. Second, I want to call attention to one paragraph in particular, which relates to dialog in general.

    One of the things I tell my authors is that Energion Publications is not interested in homogenized material. We want material that is in conversation with other viewpoints, but still expresses a strong and robust viewpoint of its own. Bob said it well:

    So, in summary, as one whose movement into Protestantism and practice of my faith has been deeply enriched and enhanced by bold and exciting Catholic scholarship, I find Mr. Patton’s argument unconvincing. I do admire, however, his strong advocacy of the importance of theology within the Christian community of faith. It is my firm belief that true ecumenical dialogue between Protestants and Catholics really suffers when theological ‘indifferentism’ is seen as the norm. The idea that ‘it makes no difference’ and that all belief systems are ‘really the same’ is both inaccurate and does no justice to the cause of deeper understanding and shared contribution to both Christ’s church and to God’s world.

    ‘Indifferentism’! What an excellent name for a not-so-good thing!

  • One Reason Christian Leaders Fall – Overload

    There have been any number of Christian leaders who have fallen recently, and while the publicity makes it appear that there are more and more, I suspect this isn’t anything new.

    One major reason for a failure in leadership is that we put too much trust in people. We give a pastor a great deal of authority, we give him a job that is impossible for any one person to do, and then we’re surprised when failure occurs. I think the pattern of Christian leadership is not supposed to put that much pressure or authority on any single person.

    I believe that reasonable responsibility, reasonable trust, and a reasonable job load would be a good starting point to helping Christian leaders keep their balance.

     

  • Bruce Epperly Series on Philippians

    … at Bob Cornwall’s blog. Bruce Epperly is the author of Philippians: A Participatory Study Guide.