I have had the great good fortune to visit recently with some amazing preachers about the challenges posed by general biblical illiteracy, in the course of writing an article on the topic for Christian Century magazine. For all sorts of reasons, it’s tough for people these days to learn even basic information about the Bible, despite its enormous influence on history and culture. Preachers face the challenge of trying to balance the different degrees of biblical literacy that congregants gathered on any given week may or may not have with the need to communicate a meaningful message necessarily based in biblical texts. I asked some for their thoughts on the problem in general and on what, specifically, preachers might do to address it. Among their thought-provoking comments and observations are some that deserve more attention than I could give in the article… or with only my voice. I’d love to hear from you — what you think — so I’m posting a few of the more controversial, or at least discussion-demanding (!), here. Each has its own blog, numbered in alphabetical order by the preacher’s last name.
Brad Hirschfield, President of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, and named one of the “Top 30 Preachers and Teachers” by Beliefnet, urges caution in setting up categories of literacy and illiteracy, if they simply affirm some kind of superiority for preachers. He observes that “real literacy creates great independence, and I don’t know if preachers want that.” Agree? Disagree?
