Article
Biblical Literacy causes Biblical Transformation
Author: Rev.T.Babu Rao
Date: 31.05.2010
Category: Scripture, Orality
Translations
Biblical Literacy is a precursor to Biblical Transformation(My brief review on Article “Why Johnny can’t read the Bible”)
Word of God is life. It produces God’s kind of life. This in other words is called as new life, born again life, transformed life etc. But how is this possible? What are the elements involved in the process? How people change to this extent. In my counseling studies I have observed that, we human beings are “meaning makers” we constantly try make sense of things...What is the point? What the purpose? What does it all mean? What should I do now? Etc. However we seldom seek Bible as a point of reference while making meanings or decisions. Why is it so? It is simply because of a blind spot caused by our Biblical illiteracy.
By Biblical illiteracy, I mean insufficient Knowledge of the Bible including the basic story-line from the creation to the founding of the church, being able to correlate this story line with world history, knowledge of key figures and where they were in the large story line and what they did, knowledge of the composition of the Bible, the authorship (both the traditional assignments and the current critical estimates). This had a huge impact on church going believers turning them into conceptual (random) learners rather than as sequential learners.
It is indispensable when you want to train a person to accomplish a process or to understand any logical points build on one another. Sequential learning requires the learner to embrace concepts in a given order, to learn the first concept before the second, the second before the third and so on. Hence the imminent need to address this, raising crisis of biblical illiteracy is to come up with intentional, effective chronological Bible study lesson plans. This alone would help church goers to perceive and understand the Bible as a single story of redemption, rather than struggling to trace & connect together the names and places.
“The Christian body in America is immersed in a crisis of biblical illiteracy,” warns researcher George Barna. “How else can you describe matters when most churchgoing adults reject the accuracy of the Bible, reject the existence of Satan, claim that Jesus sinned, see no need to evangelize, believe that good works are one of the keys to persuading God to forgive their sins, and describe their commitment to Christianity as moderate or even less firm?”[1
Other disturbing findings that document an overall lack of knowledge among churchgoing Christians include the following:
- The most widely known Bible verse among adult and teen believers is “God helps those who help themselves”—which is not actually in the Bible and actually conflicts with the basic message of Scripture.
- Less than one out of every ten believers possess a biblical worldview as the basis for his or her decision-making or behavior.
- When given thirteen basic teachings from the Bible, only 1% of adult believers firmly embraced all thirteen as being biblical perspectives.[2]
v 58% US high school grads—no more books.
v 42% US college grads—no more books.
v 80% US families—no books last year.
v 70% US adults not in bookstore in last 5 years.
v 57% of new books--not read to completion (Most readers don’t get past page 18)
Daily, Americans spend:
4 hours watching TV
3 hours listening to the radio
14 minutes reading magazines. [3]
From the Experts point of view, this alarming crisis can be dealt through the following suggestive steps
1) First, church leaders need to be aware of the crisis.
2) Pastors and church leaders need to evaluate what their people know and believe
3) Church leaders must use powerful ways to instruct their people in the truth.
4) Church leaders, including pastors, must alert their members to the unbiblical worldviews and philosophies that have crept into the church
5) Finally, we must encourage diligent and gifted teachers in the church
It is a matter of pleasure and joy to hear that, Lord has burdened some of his chosen saints to come up with innovative tools and strategies that would literally make Bible study a fun and informative while taking us through the amazing God’s story of redemption and love. People like Kampouris, Tim teller, Greg Thornbury are working forces behind BibleMesh, while Krish Kandiah, a director of the Evangelical Alliance UK is working on Biblefresh.
Finally it is our prayer that “Lord blesses their efforts; Let them bring your people back to basics”.
My special thanks to Dr.Jim & Dan (My mentors in reaching Oral Cultures).
[1] Barna Research Online, “Religious Beliefs Vary Widely by Denomination,” www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PagePressRelease.asp?PressReleaseID=92&Reference=B, June 25, 2001.
[2] Barna Research Online, “Discipleship Insights Revealed in New Book by George Barna,” www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PagePressRelease.asp?PressReleaseID =76&Reference=E&Key=bible%20knowledgeNovember 28, 2000.
[3]Source: Dan Poynter: www.parapub.com
Keywords: biblical transformation, biblical literacy, evangelical christianity, crisis in churches, american christian, bible stories, biblestudy methods, chronological bible study, biblical knowledge.
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Taiwan (ROC)
One of the concerns that many people have about bible storying is that it will replace Bible reading and people will simply not bother reading the Bible.
In fact, storying does the opposite. It stimulates us to read the Bible. For me it is because I find that I don’t know my bible as well as I thought and so I go and read it over and over so I can tell the stories correctly.
Christians find that storying tends to push them to love God’s word more.
Non-Christians begin to realize that the Bible is more relevant than they’d have thought. I have been really encouraged lately to have many working class (not traditionally big readers) who are still non-Christians either reading the Bible or listening to it on MP3.
Storying (with appropriate discussion) pushes people into the Bible and helps them deal with lingering ’myths/superstiitions in their worldview.
22.11.2011
United States
I agree with Grant that what you are describing sounds more like Biblical ignorance than Biblical illiteracy. I would agree with you that a lot of people do not know much, if anything about the Bible...including people who attend church. I would love to see curricula geared towards a better understanding of the Bible.
12.03.2011
Singapore
I appreciate you bringing out the need to teach the bible to bring about transformed lives.
Let’s help create a positive climate for receptivity to the Word of God; bringing about positive changes in attitudes, beliefs and behaviour towards the Word of God in the Church and the wider culture, accounting for prevailing worldviews and cultural norms, relevant historical events and trends, specific beliefs and attitudes about the Word and those who are communicating it, etc.
Let’s provide access to the Word of God: Working in the most appropriate language(s) and media, and seeking to ensure accuracy, naturalness and clarity in translation, local availability and affordability of materials, adequacy of literacy skills for print media, and capacity for ongoing translation, revision and communicaion of the Word in appropriate forms.
Let’s facilitate encounters with the Word of God. Discovering how diverse audiences can interact with the message of the Word in fresh, new ways that account for their interests, needs and challenges, and highlight the relevance of the Word to their lives.
William
19.08.2010
United States
"If you made the mess, you clean it up." In the spirit of that principle, let me point out a potential problem in this article for which I may share responsibility.
On the second page of his article, Rev. Rao quotes a series of statistics about reading practices. In footnote 3 he attributes them to Dan Poynter. Unfortunately, Dan Poynter did not give any source for the statistics, which, frankly, seem far-fetched to me.
I first ran across Poynter’s claims when I chaired the editorial committee that produced Making Disciples of Oral Learners. Some members of our committee proposed including Poynter’s claims in the book. Some we cut out, but others we kept. I had reservations about including any of them because Poynter did not give any source for them. Some members of the editorial committee, however, wanted to use them, so I agreed, against my better judgment. I wish now that I had pushed harder to drop them entirely.
I suspect that Rev. Rao may have been influenced to use these statistics because we included a few of them in Making Disciples of Oral Learners. He does cite it as one of his sources. On the other hand, he may have found the Poynter source himself and decided those statistics are credible. If so, perhaps he would join the conversation here and explain why he thinks the claims are credible.
At any rate, I want to go on the record as saying that I do not have confidence in Poynter’s claims, I wish I had not agreed to use them in Making Disciples of Oral Learners, and I encourage readers of that book and Rao’s article to treat them as unsubstantiated claims. I never give them credence in them in my teaching or writing. Several academically-minded participants in the International Orality Network are equally skeptical of them. If Poynter or someone else can show where they originated, I will be glad to hear from them. In the mean time I will make my case for orality without referring to them.
06.06.2010
United States
I appreciate very much the central thrust of this article, namely that people’s lives are transformed by deep, sustained encounter with God’s word. Amen and amen!
I want to make a friendly suggestion, however, about a lesser aspect of the article. I urge that we quit saying "biblical illiteracy" when we mean "biblical ignorance." When we use the first to mean the second, we equate illiteracy with ignorance. That is unfair to men and women who cannot read. It implies that because they cannot read, they know little.
I don’t think people use the phrase "biblically ignorant" out of ill will; they just have not thought through the implications. Maybe we can begin to change that by raising awareness gently.
After all, non-readers know many things. They often dwell in unforgiving places where even small mistakes can be fatal. Ignorance would have wiped them out long ago. Yet they survive harsh weather, disease, and oppression. They are intelligent problem-solvers, knowledgeable in essential survival skills if not in reading. They use oral arts like poetry, proverbs, music, and storytelling with sophistication.
So if we want to talk about lack of biblical knowledge, let’s call it that. Let’s stop protecting the feelings of the biblically uninformed at the expense of oral communicators who happen not to read.
06.06.2010
United States
Probably one of the reasons for Biblical illiteracy is the misunderstanding of why God wants us in His Word. I think many of us, I have felt this way at times as well, think of Bible reading as a chore or as a fix-it. We see it as something we must do to be good Christians instead of something we are involved in to know the Father.
Have any of you thought of ways to engage people with the Bible that make it a relationship-focused activity instead?
02.06.2010
United Kingdom
For further important reading on this subject read Michael Horton’s The Gospel Driven Life. We must return the church to the sheer grace and wonder of the biblical metanarrative.
Chris Wigram
01.06.2010
India
@ Christopher_Wigram:
Thanks Christopher, for your observation and fresh recommendation for further reading. Do let me know the Publisher Name. can I get it from OM?
02.06.2010
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