Res Biblica

"How do you like to approach the Scriptures?"

The question may sound strange or even stupid at most, but it is the question I ask those who come to me for requests regarding "bible lessons." I ask the question to make sure what particular groups really need since the different groups have different spiritual needs that can be satisfied by a particular approach to Scriptures.

There are basically three ways of approaching the Scriptures:

1. Bible study
2. Bible sharing
3. Bible meditation/reflection

Let me discuss these three approaches in reverse.

Bible meditation/reflection. This consists in reading a biblical passage and making that passage lead one to pray. Traditionally, this approach to Scriptures is also called "lectio divina." The idea is that one's reading of the text does not end in understanding how it applies to one's present circumstance but that it becomes the meat of one's conversation with God. "When we read Scriptures, we listen to God" writes Ambrose. "And when we pray to Him, that is the time we respond to Him."

Bible sharing. The most misunderstood group-approach to the reading of the Scriptures is the "bible sharing" approach. First let me describe what this is not.

• Bible sharing is not letting others know what I think is the meaning of a passage of Scriptures. Bible sharing is not about opinions; it is about faith enriching another's faith.
• Bible sharing is not an occassion for telling others about one's problems and the difficulties one has gone through. Bible sharing is not about oneself but about the God who has been moving in one's life.
• Bible sharing is not an occassion for making friends or for getting acquainted with another. Rather, it is deepening one's experience of being a member of a community of faith that continues to struggle in difficulties now, but is aware that the promised hope of the resurrection awaits it in the end.

Given the above descriptions of what Bible sharing is not, let me describe it thus: "Bible sharing is the testimony of faith one makes before the community of faith of how God is moving in one's life, recognized through the reading of the Scriptures." One's sharing of the faith, in this way, becomes an occassion whereby the community as a whole deepens its sense of belongingness to God.

Bible study. Bible study is the systematic reading of the biblical page. It seeks to gain familiarity with the text of the Scriptures as such. When one studies the Bible, one is focused on its humanity: grammar, literary characteristics, historical and geographical background, etc. Without Bible study, the understanding of the Scriptures becomes an exercise in subjective biblical opinion-making. Needless to say, bible study must precede any bible-sharing or bible-meditation. "Scriptures" Augustine would say "is the human echo of the one Word of God." One cannot encounter the Word of God without passing through the humanity of sacred page.

Read this related article from The Mystical Geek: Combining Bible Study and Prayer.