Language of Faith
Several years ago, the Evangelical
Lutheran Church recognized that we, as Christians, are not
proficient in the
language of faith as we ought. We do not read the Bible as
previous generations did and we do not know the Bible stories and
teachings as second nature. I would like for us to reclaim this part
of our heritage.
There are many reasons for this
decrease in Bible proficiency. In times past the Bible was taught in
school. In part, because of a shortage of books, students used the
Bible as textbook as well as for studies in literature. Comparing
classroom exposure to the Bible 6 days a week in the past to only 1
day a week now ( in Sunday school and
worship), explains much.
Now, I do not advocate teaching
the Bible in public school, except perhaps as an elective class on
the Bible as
literature. As a Lutheran theologian, I do not necessarily
want a non-Lutheran teaching a religion class in public school. For
example, would they teach the real presence of Jesus in the bread
and wine of communion from a
Lutheran/Roman Catholic perspective or the
memorial/remembrance perspective of some other denominations?
How about the issues of infant or adult baptism, slavery,
women’s status in the church and society and so on?
But then this means we have a
greater need for small group study and/or individual study of the
Bible in order to
become as proficient. But again,
we have the problem of Bible time competing against a finite amount
of time for family and
school activities, television, and other reading, etc. (Remember,
that at one time there was no radio or
television and the Bible might be one of the few rare books a
family owned. Now it is not unusual for families to
own many dozens of books, plus magazines, newspapers and
don’t forget the availability of internet articles.)
In spite of this, most of us still
would say that we wish we had time to read, study and know the Bible
better. Our
intentions are good. It is just super difficult to find the time and
the resolve to read the Bible on our own. With that
it mind, and knowing your time is valuable and limited, I am
making a recommendation.
Walt Wangerin wrote a narrative
retelling of the Bible stories called
The Book of God that is extremely readable
and compelling. The book looks too big to tackle, but I want
to assure you that the writing is so very clear and vivid that the
pages zip by. At the same time, the Bible stories will come alive in
your imagination.
And if you struggle with the Bible
itself, trying to put meaning into context in a text that is 2000
years old, I recommend Pastor Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase
translation of the Bible called
The Message. This is not a particularly
suited for small group Bible study, but it is very good for private
reading and meditation. This translation is perhaps more like Martin
Luther’s translation of the Bible into the German vernacular,
The Message is not a word-for-word
translation but attempts a thought-for-thought translation into
modern English usage. It is clear the Holy Spirit is at work in both
these books.
Pastor Harvey Johnson