pioneering Bible Society project aims to renew the way the Bible is interpreted in universities, and in so doing increase the benefits of biblical studies for the Church. Lindsay Shaw donned gown and mortar board to find out more…

There was a time when most 18-year-olds were learning the ropes of a new career and doing day release at the local FE college. Today, when over 25 per cent of school leavers go on to Higher Education, preparation for the workplace has changed out of all recognition and the influence of universities has never been greater.

For four years Bible Society and the University of Gloucestershire have been sponsoring a major project that aims to reap great benefits in the way the Bible is heard and studied in universities. The Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar is working with international scholars to help point the direction for Bible scholars there, as well as for the over 10,000 students of Theology and Religious Studies, church leaders in training and the Church as a whole.

As Craig Bartholomew points out this is an exciting time for biblical studies. "There has been a way of studying the Bible for the last 150 years in Western academies that tends to reduce the Bible to an ancient artefact and product of its time," Craig explains. Although there have been important gains, this has left the Bible "very little to say to us in the present, especially as Scripture or the word of God."

" There is a growing minority of scholars who are really aware of this," Craig believes, and "Because of what is going on culturally that style has been radically questioned." Cue the "P"-word. Postmodernism. This has brought "a smorgasbord of other ways of reading the Bible – feminist readings, gay readings, all sorts of postmodern stuff."

Far from feeling threatened, Craig senses a God-given opportunity. "Biblical scholars don’t know what the way forward is and we would argue that this time of crisis is a tremendous opportunity to reassess the direction of biblical studies. For those of us who are interested in the interpretation of the Bible as Scripture, this is a magnificent time to set the agenda."

How then? Craig explains that the Seminar began with talks with Bible Society that led to a consultation with "about 25 inter-disciplinary scholars". This drew up "a list of major areas to be addressed if a renewal of biblical interpretation was to be possible". With sponsorship from Bible Society and the University of Gloucestershire, Craig’s base, a series of ten annual gatherings for high profile scholars began in 1999. Last year’s, held in Canada, looked at Language and Biblical Interpretation. Each consultation becomes the basis for a major book that ripples the debate wider.

The experience of mixing together specialists from philosophy to education has been exhilarating, Craig reveals. And the seminar has started to build an international community of scholars with the potential to activate a wider discussion about how the Bible is encountered in the university world.

" Hermeneutics," according to Craig, "is just a sophisticated word for knowing better how to listen to the text so as to hear properly what God is saying to his people, at this time and in this place." If that can be achieved in the universities, lecturers and students will benefit and we could expect "academic work of the highest calibre that will really be in the service of the Church."

BABEL OR BIBLE?

The second book in THE SCRIPTURE AND HERMENEUTICS SERIES is After Pentecost: Language and Biblical Interpretation (Craig Bartholomew, Colin Greene, Karl Möller, editors). Craig points out: "a word that crops up again and again" among culture watchers "is the word ’Babel’. Sometimes postmodernism is viewed as though real communication and truth are no longer possible. This volume is called After Pentecost to indicate that Babel is not the final word. Babel has to be put next to Pentecost."

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