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Shaping the Scriptural Imagination: Truth, Meaning, and the Theological Interpretation of the Bible
The late Donald H. Juel (1942–2003) devoted his life to engaging scripture faithfully, intelligently, and imaginatively. For Juel, theological interpretation of the Bible meant having an encounter with the living God. This volume identifies and connects many of the overarching themes that animated Juel's work. Including his thoughts on the rhetorical nature of scripture, the challenges facing academic instruction of the Bible, the reader's place in the biblical narrative, and the hope of resurrection, among others, the selections are accessible and engaging and paint a unique portrait of the way Juel thought and lived. Juel seeks to nourish readers in developing richer imaginations about who God is and how Christians meet God through reading the Bible.
220 pages, Hardcover
First published July 15, 2011
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December 1, 2011
I never took a class with Dr. Juel while at Princeton. Now, I know I really missed out.
I don't know how to recommend this book as it deserves without stealing the late Dr. Juel's thunder, so I will just say: If you believe to any degree that God speaks through the Bible; if you think, to any extent, that Bible study is an important endeavor; if you care at all, and I mean one iota, about how Scripture is studied and read in congregational worship and education; if you are ever, at any point, called upon to present and interpret the Bible publically, as a Sunday school teacher, a preacher, a youth leader, curriculum writer (ahem!) .... If any of these statements apply to you, you really owe it to yourself to read this book. Juel's accessible essays and engaging sermons convicted me that, even now, I haven't really begun to appreciate what it means to say that the living Word still speaks through these ancient words.
Juel's basic argument (woefully paraphrased) is that, while the historical-critical methods of studying the Bible are important and can't be discarded, they do not get at the question of "What is God doing through this text?," because they're not designed to do so. To have an encounter with God through the Bible, we have to read it (1) from the standpoint of faith (which the Bible practically compels, because it confronts us with, as Matt Skinner's introduction says, God's promises that are only given, not necessariy explained); and (2) by "performing" it within a community, an audience. Bible study that stops at reading the text silently to oneself is, for Juel, insufficient. The text must be heard, and it must be heard in the company of others. Interpretation can't be solitary.
This all sounds pretty obvious and banal as I lay it out here, but when you see Juel bring these insights to bear on the question of where Mark's gospel originally ends (a dominant concern in these pages, as Juel was an expert in Mark); or his powerful Good Friday sermon, maybe the most faithfully preaching on that occasion I've ever seen ("Your theologizing will just make it worse, until you are prepared to join the leaders in doing away with a God who would act in such a fashion... The only one who can touch you and make you whole is dead, shut up in a tomb. We can only hope that God won't leave him there"); or his preaching on Psalm 139 ("The one from whom there is no escape and who knows you better than you know yourself is intent not on your destruction, but on your liberation and your salvation. In fact, God has been busy with nothing else") -- these aren't dry precepts he's laying down, these are witnesses to what God does with Scripture.
Page after page, Juel gives the lie to the old myth (that I heard many times from well meaning church members as I got ready to go to seminary) that scholarship necessarily erodes faith, that you "can't let those professors shake up what you believe." Juel believed, and believed passionately, in a God who is all about shaking us up. To again quote Skinner's introduction, one of Juel's recurring themes is, "Be careful of what gets handed down to us as authoritative... we will probably use it to make Bible reading more comfortable than it should be."
No longer being in pastoral ministry, I don't read as many "church books" as I used to; but this is a book that almost every adult in a church (probably written at too high a level for younger than college) -- the pastors, the officers, the members -- could read profitably. It certainly makes me eager to grow as a more "imaginative" reader of the Bible: not in the sense of "making things up" and being clever, but in the sense of attending more closely to the Scripture itself, even and especially in all its complications and questions, in order to more fully hear and claim its certain, uncomplicated promises in the end, as Juel himself clearly did.
So, yes: very highly recommended!
I don't know how to recommend this book as it deserves without stealing the late Dr. Juel's thunder, so I will just say: If you believe to any degree that God speaks through the Bible; if you think, to any extent, that Bible study is an important endeavor; if you care at all, and I mean one iota, about how Scripture is studied and read in congregational worship and education; if you are ever, at any point, called upon to present and interpret the Bible publically, as a Sunday school teacher, a preacher, a youth leader, curriculum writer (ahem!) .... If any of these statements apply to you, you really owe it to yourself to read this book. Juel's accessible essays and engaging sermons convicted me that, even now, I haven't really begun to appreciate what it means to say that the living Word still speaks through these ancient words.
Juel's basic argument (woefully paraphrased) is that, while the historical-critical methods of studying the Bible are important and can't be discarded, they do not get at the question of "What is God doing through this text?," because they're not designed to do so. To have an encounter with God through the Bible, we have to read it (1) from the standpoint of faith (which the Bible practically compels, because it confronts us with, as Matt Skinner's introduction says, God's promises that are only given, not necessariy explained); and (2) by "performing" it within a community, an audience. Bible study that stops at reading the text silently to oneself is, for Juel, insufficient. The text must be heard, and it must be heard in the company of others. Interpretation can't be solitary.
This all sounds pretty obvious and banal as I lay it out here, but when you see Juel bring these insights to bear on the question of where Mark's gospel originally ends (a dominant concern in these pages, as Juel was an expert in Mark); or his powerful Good Friday sermon, maybe the most faithfully preaching on that occasion I've ever seen ("Your theologizing will just make it worse, until you are prepared to join the leaders in doing away with a God who would act in such a fashion... The only one who can touch you and make you whole is dead, shut up in a tomb. We can only hope that God won't leave him there"); or his preaching on Psalm 139 ("The one from whom there is no escape and who knows you better than you know yourself is intent not on your destruction, but on your liberation and your salvation. In fact, God has been busy with nothing else") -- these aren't dry precepts he's laying down, these are witnesses to what God does with Scripture.
Page after page, Juel gives the lie to the old myth (that I heard many times from well meaning church members as I got ready to go to seminary) that scholarship necessarily erodes faith, that you "can't let those professors shake up what you believe." Juel believed, and believed passionately, in a God who is all about shaking us up. To again quote Skinner's introduction, one of Juel's recurring themes is, "Be careful of what gets handed down to us as authoritative... we will probably use it to make Bible reading more comfortable than it should be."
No longer being in pastoral ministry, I don't read as many "church books" as I used to; but this is a book that almost every adult in a church (probably written at too high a level for younger than college) -- the pastors, the officers, the members -- could read profitably. It certainly makes me eager to grow as a more "imaginative" reader of the Bible: not in the sense of "making things up" and being clever, but in the sense of attending more closely to the Scripture itself, even and especially in all its complications and questions, in order to more fully hear and claim its certain, uncomplicated promises in the end, as Juel himself clearly did.
So, yes: very highly recommended!
January 4, 2015
What does the Bible mean? Not what many Western Christians seem to think it means, according to Don Juel. The Bible does not lay out a systematic theology, a secure foundation on which we can construct contemporary faith. It is much more elusive than that. But the church should not have to turn to experts to explain once and for all "what it meant." Over-reliance on historical criticism often shuts out passionate engagement with "what it means." Like the risen Jesus, the Bible is "on the loose," bursting with challenge and promise for those who have ears to hear.
This is a great book for all Christians who love the Bible -- especially seminarians and preachers who, after reading several commentaries on their Sunday text, struggle to put the meaning back into the Bible.
My favorite quote: "I am suspicious of foundational language, as though our reading of the Bible will yield solid, immovable rocks on which to locate our edifices. Living with the Scriptures is more like sailing than like building cathedrals. We don't have control over the elements -- just enough to navigate in the face of surprising shifts of wind and changed water conditions. Some would perhaps hope for more stability, but for sailors bedrock is where sunken ships lie" (p. 30).
Thanks to Matt Skinner and Shane Berg for their loving commitment to this project.
This is a great book for all Christians who love the Bible -- especially seminarians and preachers who, after reading several commentaries on their Sunday text, struggle to put the meaning back into the Bible.
My favorite quote: "I am suspicious of foundational language, as though our reading of the Bible will yield solid, immovable rocks on which to locate our edifices. Living with the Scriptures is more like sailing than like building cathedrals. We don't have control over the elements -- just enough to navigate in the face of surprising shifts of wind and changed water conditions. Some would perhaps hope for more stability, but for sailors bedrock is where sunken ships lie" (p. 30).
Thanks to Matt Skinner and Shane Berg for their loving commitment to this project.
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