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Scripture Study: Tools and Suggestions
Cultivate your love for the scriptures and deepen your knowledge with the help of a scripture study process compiled by James E. Faulconer. Rich scripture study is facilitated by tools and techniques that help us focus on what the scriptures can teach us. This study aid offers pointers and suggestions that will familiarize beginning students of the scriptures with the many resources available to them, as well as help more experienced students improve the overall effectiveness of their scripture study.
In this fascinating book, James Faulconer discusses a helpful method and the purpose of outlining, an in-depth method of cross-referencing, how to ask cogent and thought-provoking questions about the scriptures, the benefits of using dictionaries and concordances, the relation between words and ideas apparent through rhetorical studies, and using the valuable reference tools in the LDS edition of the scriptures. He then provides sample notes developed using the study tools he describes to show how research and pondering can make scripture study even more meaningful.
In this fascinating book, James Faulconer discusses a helpful method and the purpose of outlining, an in-depth method of cross-referencing, how to ask cogent and thought-provoking questions about the scriptures, the benefits of using dictionaries and concordances, the relation between words and ideas apparent through rhetorical studies, and using the valuable reference tools in the LDS edition of the scriptures. He then provides sample notes developed using the study tools he describes to show how research and pondering can make scripture study even more meaningful.
- GenresReligionLdsNonfiction
157 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
11 people are currently reading
45 people want to read
About the author
James E. Faulconer
22 books11 followersJames E. Faulconer is an American philosopher, a Richard L. Evans professor of philosophy at Brigham Young University, the director of BYU's London Centre, a fellow and associate director of the Wheatley Institution, and the former dean of Undergraduate Education and chair of the Philosophy Department at BYU. Brother Faulconer received his BA in English from BYU. He then received master's and PhD degrees in philosophy from Pennsylvania State University. His area of interest in philosophy is contemporary European philosophy, particularly the work of Martin Heidegger and late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century French thinkers.
from https://rsc.byu.edu/authors/faulconer...
from https://rsc.byu.edu/authors/faulconer...
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 4, 2014
This is probably the most useful book on scripture study that I have ever read. I confess my bias: I have read a bunch of Jim's writings on blogs and have always found him to be insightful and humble, so my overwhelmingly positive view of Jim probably influences my review of his book, which is 15 years old at this point.
The real strength of Jim's book is that it focuses on studying the scriptures themselves, rather than studying things that people have said about the scriptures, or things that people have said about things that are mentioned in the scriptures, and calling it scripture study. He strikes a good balance between two unproductive extremes of, on the one hand, dismissing any kind of scholarship and reading only what religious leaders have said and on the other hand, focusing entirely on scholarship about the scriptures rather than focusing on the scriptures themselves. In some ways, I see Jim's book as the LDS scriptures version of Tolkien's "The Monsters and the Critics" essay, in which he takes the academy to task for seeing only the historical value of Beowulf and failing to read it as art, on its own terms. That's what Jim's tools and suggestions do: they teach readers of scripture to read scripture on its own terms.
Scriptural commentaries have their use (though in my experience a book-length scriptural commentary on an entire volume of scripture is rarely of equal value with regard to the entire volume--usually it is very good for a few key sections and basically useless for the rest), but I really appreciate that Jim's book encourages readers to study the scripture itself first, and essentially, to write their own commentary on the significance of the text they are studying before turning to commentaries. Jim also makes a useful distinction between sources that give information that enables a reader to interpret the scriptures (such as dictionaries, for example) and sources that merely interpret the scriptures for a reader.
Probably the best sections are the introductory chapter, the chapter on asking questions, and the chapter on cross-references. The sample study notes are also useful.
Above all, nothing that Jim says is particularly earth-shattering. There are no new and excitign insights. Rather, the value of this book lies in its solidity and its incision rather than in its novelty. That is, Jim does a great job of pulling out and making obvious what are relatively uncontroversial propositions, and stripping away a lot of the notions that we have about how to study scriptures that may distract from studying the scriptures themselves.
In "The Monsters and the Critics," Tolkien compared Beowulf to a tower built from old stone recovered from the ruins of an older building, and criticized the academic community for spending all its effort in knocking the tower over to study the hidden inscriptions on the stones, in order to discover something about the older hall, or about the quarry where the stones came from, rather than climbing the tower to understand the vision that the builder had from the top of the tower:
"A man inherited a field in which was an accumulation of old stone, part of an older hall. Of the old stone some had already been used on building the house in which he actually lived, not far from the old house of his fathers. Of the rest he took some and built a tower. But his friends coming perceived at once (without troubling to climb the steps) that these stones had formerly belonged to a more ancient building. So they pushed the tower over, with no little labour, in order to look for hidden carvings and inscriptions, or to discover whence the man's distant forefathers had obtained their building material. Some suspecting a deposit of coal under the soil began to dig for it, and forgot even the stones. They all said: 'This tower is most interesting.' But they also said (after pushing it over): 'What a muddle it is in!' And even the man's own descendants, who might have been expected to consider what he had been about, were heard to murmur: 'He is such an odd fellow! Imagine his using these old stones to build a nonsensical tower! Why did he not restore the old house? He had no sense of proportion.' But from the top of that tower the man had been able to look out upon the sea."
The strength of Jim's book is not that it says anything new about the hidden carvings in the scriptures (such as commentaries that obsess with finding chiasmus or other instances of arguably semitic words or phrases in the Book of Mormon), or about the origins of the stones that make up the scriptures (such as commentaries that obsess over the documentary hypothesis in the Old Testament). Those kinds of studies have their place, but the strength of Jim's book is that it invites us to not only understand the shape of the stones, but to climb the steps and to look out upon the sea.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to better understand LDS scripture, but particularly to missionaries and those preparing to serve missions. It is also nice that it is available for free online through the Maxwell Institute.
The real strength of Jim's book is that it focuses on studying the scriptures themselves, rather than studying things that people have said about the scriptures, or things that people have said about things that are mentioned in the scriptures, and calling it scripture study. He strikes a good balance between two unproductive extremes of, on the one hand, dismissing any kind of scholarship and reading only what religious leaders have said and on the other hand, focusing entirely on scholarship about the scriptures rather than focusing on the scriptures themselves. In some ways, I see Jim's book as the LDS scriptures version of Tolkien's "The Monsters and the Critics" essay, in which he takes the academy to task for seeing only the historical value of Beowulf and failing to read it as art, on its own terms. That's what Jim's tools and suggestions do: they teach readers of scripture to read scripture on its own terms.
Scriptural commentaries have their use (though in my experience a book-length scriptural commentary on an entire volume of scripture is rarely of equal value with regard to the entire volume--usually it is very good for a few key sections and basically useless for the rest), but I really appreciate that Jim's book encourages readers to study the scripture itself first, and essentially, to write their own commentary on the significance of the text they are studying before turning to commentaries. Jim also makes a useful distinction between sources that give information that enables a reader to interpret the scriptures (such as dictionaries, for example) and sources that merely interpret the scriptures for a reader.
Probably the best sections are the introductory chapter, the chapter on asking questions, and the chapter on cross-references. The sample study notes are also useful.
Above all, nothing that Jim says is particularly earth-shattering. There are no new and excitign insights. Rather, the value of this book lies in its solidity and its incision rather than in its novelty. That is, Jim does a great job of pulling out and making obvious what are relatively uncontroversial propositions, and stripping away a lot of the notions that we have about how to study scriptures that may distract from studying the scriptures themselves.
In "The Monsters and the Critics," Tolkien compared Beowulf to a tower built from old stone recovered from the ruins of an older building, and criticized the academic community for spending all its effort in knocking the tower over to study the hidden inscriptions on the stones, in order to discover something about the older hall, or about the quarry where the stones came from, rather than climbing the tower to understand the vision that the builder had from the top of the tower:
"A man inherited a field in which was an accumulation of old stone, part of an older hall. Of the old stone some had already been used on building the house in which he actually lived, not far from the old house of his fathers. Of the rest he took some and built a tower. But his friends coming perceived at once (without troubling to climb the steps) that these stones had formerly belonged to a more ancient building. So they pushed the tower over, with no little labour, in order to look for hidden carvings and inscriptions, or to discover whence the man's distant forefathers had obtained their building material. Some suspecting a deposit of coal under the soil began to dig for it, and forgot even the stones. They all said: 'This tower is most interesting.' But they also said (after pushing it over): 'What a muddle it is in!' And even the man's own descendants, who might have been expected to consider what he had been about, were heard to murmur: 'He is such an odd fellow! Imagine his using these old stones to build a nonsensical tower! Why did he not restore the old house? He had no sense of proportion.' But from the top of that tower the man had been able to look out upon the sea."
The strength of Jim's book is not that it says anything new about the hidden carvings in the scriptures (such as commentaries that obsess with finding chiasmus or other instances of arguably semitic words or phrases in the Book of Mormon), or about the origins of the stones that make up the scriptures (such as commentaries that obsess over the documentary hypothesis in the Old Testament). Those kinds of studies have their place, but the strength of Jim's book is that it invites us to not only understand the shape of the stones, but to climb the steps and to look out upon the sea.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to better understand LDS scripture, but particularly to missionaries and those preparing to serve missions. It is also nice that it is available for free online through the Maxwell Institute.
October 25, 2016
This book blew my mind. What an incredibly helpful guide to studying the scriptures (which, by the way, I kinda thought I had been doing all along but realized quickly that I have never really studied them). The appendices are a must-read and have now become a crucial piece of my personal puzzle of truly understanding the scriptures (which, again, I thought I understood pretty well but realized quickly that my current understanding is shallow). I would recommend this book to anyone.
December 9, 2017
I have very mixed feelings about this little volume. I respect Faulconer as a thinker, and got a lot out of his deep discussions, particularly the appendix focusing on Greek vs. Hebrew thinking. Many of his suggestions for scripture study, however, I found to be complete overkill. His ideas of outlining chapters, scanning sentences in terms of rhetoric, and searching for alternate uses (going back to the original Hebrew and Greek) of nearly every word in a verse sound onerous to me. He speaks in his introduction of spending months on one chapter of Genesis, and that's how long it would take to follow all his suggestions for studying scripture. Maybe that would work for some people, but most of the tips and tools he talked about didn't appeal to me.
3.5 stars.
3.5 stars.
April 7, 2020
A great little book on the basic tools and skills in effectively studying the scriptures. When this was written 20 years ago I am sure this was very insightful to many people. Today, these methods are common in the church and openly promoted. Wonderful insights through all of the skills that are based off his wonderful philosophy background.
With that said, I think some of the most powerful insights came in his appendices where he delineates the differences in western/Greek thought and eastern/Hebrew thought. I was pleased to see that many of the more incongruous and mysterious insights I have had in the scriptures make a lot more sense when they are viewed in a Hebrew lens of thinking. One example is of studying repentance in terms of time and having the insight that somehow it seems the Lord sees it in a more complete view with past, present, and future all together, rather than how we in the west typically look with the past being unattainable and the present being isolated from the past. In fact, as I think about it, I believe it was in repentance itself that I experienced this new view. That as I repented it was as if my past had changed, though nothing was different in terms of events or logic. It literally felt different. But, it is the past. How can the past be different because of present events? It was and is and it was divine.
With that said, I think some of the most powerful insights came in his appendices where he delineates the differences in western/Greek thought and eastern/Hebrew thought. I was pleased to see that many of the more incongruous and mysterious insights I have had in the scriptures make a lot more sense when they are viewed in a Hebrew lens of thinking. One example is of studying repentance in terms of time and having the insight that somehow it seems the Lord sees it in a more complete view with past, present, and future all together, rather than how we in the west typically look with the past being unattainable and the present being isolated from the past. In fact, as I think about it, I believe it was in repentance itself that I experienced this new view. That as I repented it was as if my past had changed, though nothing was different in terms of events or logic. It literally felt different. But, it is the past. How can the past be different because of present events? It was and is and it was divine.
August 23, 2020
This book gives tools for exactly what it says in the opening chapter: the tools and some suggestions for a DEEP study of scripture. This book gave tools and methods for studying scripture like a disciple-scholar would. In other words, it was exactly what I was looking for and if that appeals to you, I can't endorse this enough.
January 12, 2018
I highly recommend this book. I especially enjoy the suggestions to learn in ways that get around the barrier of "what I already know." Truly great suggestions. I've read this book and referenced it on multiple occasions since first encountering the book.
March 12, 2009
I reread this one periodically hoping that all the great insights on scripture study will finally sink all the way in and I will always study this way. Never works; I always end up getting "lazy" and needing a refresher course.
April 12, 2012
Probably the best LDS guide for learning to read scripture. The section on asking questions is superb. There's also a couple more philosophical essays at the end of the book that shouldn't be missed.
March 1, 2008
A good book by a good friend of mine. Certainly the best guide out there to how scripture can best be studied.
July 3, 2008
O.K. so I'm soooo not a scholar, so this really helped me as far as my own personal study how-to's.
August 1, 2013
There were some nice suggestions here, and some interesting insights, particularly into Greek and Hebrew. For me, it was a little light.
November 28, 2013
Excellent
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews