Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Attitude for the teacher and the students

In his preface to his book, An Introduction to the New Testament, David A deSilva says something that, I think, both the teachers of the Bible and their students can learn from.

"The reader [of deSilva's book] is therefore invited not to learn from a master but to wrestle alongside a fellow learner with these magnificent texts [ie. the Scriptures] that have opened up hearts to God, nourished faith and shaped lives for two millennia."

Too often we think we are the master and that we know all the truth. But in fact we only know a little bit, and we are fellow learners with others.

Below is something deSilva says about what his father taught him.

"He taught me that there are two sides to every argument, and he perhaps contributed more than anyone else to my awareness of ideology and rhetorical strategy in people, no less than in texts."

We all come to the Bible with our own biases, and even ideologies. Let's learn from God the Holy Spirit and from each other when we come to studying the Bible.

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