Scholarship for the Masses
Something that Mandy and I have talked about at length with each other and friends is how the church can take all the scholarship that exists and somehow make it available to the masses. I was surfing around the blogosphere and found someone who thinks the same, or at least similar.
There is a lot of great scholarship going on. Students are writing dissertations and MA thesis. It’s exciting. Books are being released by scholars that really shed some great light on Biblical books, ideas, or theology. It is an exciting time to be involved in Biblical studies (which, you know, everyone might say at any time about any field). Yet the masses see very little of this scholarship. Sometimes I think this is because people have an animosity towards scholarship. Reading things that are above our heads can make us feel stupid, and no one likes that. Still though, there is a lot that the Church could benefit from in modern scholarship that never makes it to the people in the pew. At other times, if the scholarship does make it to the masses, the average person still has trouble distilling it for themselves. They don’t know the lingo, they don’t have the education.
Stephen (linked above) has some great thoughts on this. I agree with him that the reason for this can tend to be differing goals in writing for scholars and “popular authors.” I hope that he is able to make his scholarship available to the masses. I know my own life and journey with Christ has been enriched by scholarship. There is a lot of value there, across the board.
I think that the Church could realistically attack this from two angles. First, Pastors and others in a local church need to be educated. A PhD isn’t a requirement, but they need to be able to read, understand and at some level interact with the scholarship that is going on in Biblical and Theological studies. To make matters more complicated they need to be able to distill this scholarship down to a level that the masses can assimilate. This is a tall order, to be sure. Still, I think it could be done. Scholarship is really not on some unreachable mountain “out there.” With some work, and a decent education, many people can understand what the scholars are saying, even if they can’t write such things themselves. Second, I think that we need to make a greater attempt to educate those in the church who are interested in it. My wife has taught Hebrew to multiple teens. They were interested, she taught, they learned. It’s a good thing. I see no reason why I church couldn’t offer a “class” in Hebrew and Greek (which tend to be a requirement for reading scholarly material). These languages have the added incentive of allowing the learner to read the Bible in the original, which is pretty cool. Yes, learning a language is hard work, but it is not impossible. Churches could also offer other classes in helping people develop the vocabulary and critical thinking skills required to interact with scholarship.
I’m interested to hear what some other people think on this. Would it be possible to come at this form both ends? Try to have some people bring scholarship “down” a little (not all of scholarship, but take scholarship as it is now, and distill it a bit), and at the same time bring people who are interested “up” to a point where they can interact with the scholarship on their own?
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