Personal Bible Study
Monday night was great. Our group read through all of Amos...with one person reading and the rest of us listening, not reading along. It was difficult to focus at times. Our culture isn't exactly geared to sitting and listening without visual input...especially with a 6 year old and 3 year old interrupting at times. But despite the distractions (both interior and exterior), it was great to hear God's Word and in a large chunk, not a pep-booster poster-version sound bite. It was whole.

It is interesting how we so often approach the Bible study in our individualistic, modern world. In the 500 years since the arrival of the printing press, we've come to believe so much in "personal Bible study". Prior to Gutenberg's invention owning a Bible could cost up to 10 years wages. The only people involved in personal Bible study were scholars, priests, and the wealthy. For everyone else the Scriptures were heard communally. For centuries one of the spiritual practices of the Church was to read Scripture to each other. Perhaps by focusing so much on personal Bible study (and the guilt of not doing it) we've missed out on the time tested methods of speaking and hearing the Word of God together.

posted by Jimmy at 6:28 PM | |