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Jesus Was a Literature Professor
Literature professors are a determined lot. Our goal is to deepen our students’ engagement with the text at hand. We desperately want them to dive for the pearls deep below the surface and come up triumphant, gasping for air and eager to go deeper next time. I am aware that literature professors weren’t a thing in Jesus’ time. Jewish students who sat under their rabbis studied the Old Testament (though not as Christians today understand it.) They became rabbis and scribes, teaching what they learned to the next generation. And then came Jesus. He understood all the old texts and the traditional ways of reading them. But the way he…
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How Narcissists Misinterpret Scripture
Many of us misinterpret Scripture. It takes both the guidance of the Holy Spirit and serious study to figure out what the Bible is telling us and avoid misinterpretation. We all have our filters that obscure the truth, and translations are sometimes spotty at best. But the difference between a sincere Christian’s attempt to understand the Bible versus how a narcissist uses it for his or her advantage becomes apparent with a little digging. Any interpretation of the Bible that does not involve the Holy Spirit is bound to be inaccurate. But as unfortunate as that can be, the real danger lies in those who use it for their selfish…
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How the Bible Reads You When You Read It
The Bible is intertextual. In literary theory, the term intertextuality refers to the interrelationship between texts, especially works of literature; the way that similar or related texts influence, reflect, or differ from each other. And just as many works of literature reference the Bible, whether knowingly or unknowingly, we, too, are texts that interact with every book that we read. Think of it this way. I am a collection of experiences, memories, and acquired knowledge. I have a library in my mind. As I read any work, I access this library of the mind and interact with whatever I am reading. In a sense, everything I read is now understood in a whole new way. I create a new book that no one has ever read before, at least not…
Healing Through Art & Words
