Tag: Bible study

  • Biblical interpretation – again

    Yesterday’s class was a whistlestop tour of the main phases of Biblical Interpretation since the first century. Interesting enough but nothing earth-shattering. It was followed, though, by an interesting discussion on more recent approaches to scripture. Much as the traditional historical-critical methods are useful and interesting, I struggle with some of the inherent flaws present…

  • 4th year begins

    First day back at uni yesterday. Despite the long summer break it hardly feels like I’ve been away. I had two classes yesterday (I have one on Friday as well), both quite different. The first was Biblical Interpretation which was the class I tried to get out of but couldn’t. I don’t think it’s going…

  • Dissertation thoughts

    Sometime before the end of the exam term I need to have a good idea of what my honours dissertation is going to be and also identify a possible supervisor. My big problem is narrowing things down to a manageable research area. I like the ‘big picture’ stuff. The nitty-gritty can get frustrating sometimes. Anyway,…

  • What really happened at Sodom and Gomorrah

    Interesting story today on a science/tech site I read. An Assyrian clay tablet lurking in a museum has been long-recognised as an astronomer’s ‘observation diary’, but some recent studies have subjected its observations to a computerised planisphere that can back-track the position of stars, etc for thousands of years. The tablet has ‘confirmed’ the impact…

  • A light in the darkness

    I’m churning over some sermon ideas at the moment (pulpit supply in my home church on the evening of the 13th of April) and, following through a particular line of thought, a small section of the Beatitudes popped into my head: Mat 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a…

  • Dissertation dilemmas

    Some time over the next few weeks I’m supposed to come up with some ideas for my dissertation for next year. I’m really struggling to narrow things down though. I have an interest in theology, Biblical interpretation and Biblical criticism. My initial idea was to consider how a ‘reader-response’ approach to Biblical criticism is shaped…

  • Biblical interpretation and theology

    My two favourite subjects. I happened to be browsing the interweb and I discovered a list of ‘categories’ that helped identify preferred Biblical interpretation slant depending on one’s theological leanings. I don’t normally hold with labelling or categorising, but I did find these to be uncannily accurate.

  • Scripture and limericks

    An odd pairing you might think, but surprisingly apt – or, at least, it seemed to make sense in the shower this morning. The reading for our ‘Method of reading the Hebrew Bible’ class this coming week was an introduction to, and a fairly robust criticism of, Historical/Literary Criticism. This particular branch of Biblical criticism…

  • 3 Subjects

    The first week of the second semester of third year is now underway and I have been to classes for all three of my subjects. Actually, I only have two classes because one of my subjects is a placement with the chaplaincy team at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. In some respects that’s a dream course –…

  • Lectionary thoughts

    Following on from today’s other blog entry, I was thinking about the lectionary. Today’s readings from Amos, 1Timothy and Luke were kind to me. There was a connection that could be made between them and, more importantly, one that could be used at today’s Harvest Thanksgiving service. The thing I struggle with about the lectionary…