People of the Book: Inviting Communities into Biblical Interpretation

by T. Michael W. Halcomb, Timothy C. McNinch

Overview

We live in an era when the Bible appears to be less and less relevant to mainstream cultures. Those who do care about the Scriptures tend to derive their interpretations secondhand, from the preacher's pulpit or from generalized study guides written by complete strangers. These approaches overlook the communal and conversational nature of the Bible itself. If we hope to recover the transformative power of these ancient texts, and invite our world to reconsider their significance, we will need to engage whole communities together in the bottom-up task of interpretation. People of the Book was written to offer an organic-holistic approach to communal interpretation, an approach that can work for your community and appeal to your wider culture. Halcomb and McNinch envision the Bible as a conversation we are privileged to enter: listening, questioning, wrestling, reasoning, and responding together as authentic people of the Book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781621893547
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	05/03/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	162
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

T. Michael W. Halcomb is a PhD candidate in biblical studies at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, and teaches at Centenary United Methodist Church in Lexington, Kentucky. He is also the author of the forthcoming book Entering the Fray: A Primer on New Testament Issues for the Church&Academy (Wipf&Stock).

Timothy McNinch is the founding pastor of Vineyard Church of Kalamazoo, Michigan. He worked for several years as a campus staff member for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.
T. Michael W. Halcomb is a PhD candidate at Asbury Theological Seminary. He is the author of People of the Book: Inviting Communities into Biblical Interpretation, Entering the Fray: A Primer on New Testament Issues for the Church&Academy, and A Handbook of Ancient Greek Grammatical Terms: Greek-English and English-Greek.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Introduction xvii

1 The Bible as Conversation 1

2 A Case for Community 11

3 Entering the Conversation 19

4 Bridging the Gap 37

5 Case Studies in Communal Interpretation 51

6 Leadership in Interpretive Communities 100

Conclusion 109

Appendix 1 Quick-Reference Guide to the Six Movements 111

Appendix 2 Lenses for Observation 114

Appendix 3 Scholarly Resources for Interpretive Synthesis 124

Appendix 4 Creative Environments for Devotion 128

Bibliography 133