Practice on Your Own

 

          The easiest way to try out this method is to talk to other people. You can find great benefit in private, devotional reading of Scripture, but don’t be afraid to get out there and see what other people are thinking. You could join a bible study group or simply find a neighbor, friend, or relative and chat about a passage you’ve been reading. Many of us are uncomfortable talking about religion, but if you know someone else who enjoys reading the bible, you might benefit a lot from each other’s insights. Maybe after mass on Sunday you could meet for brunch and talk about what the readings meant to you that day.

 

          You might grow even more if that conversation partner is a lot different than you. We tend to gravitate toward people with the same background as our own, but are you willing to speak to someone of a different gender or socio-economic class? Other factors are also significant here, like race, age, marital status, and so forth. Urban people tend to view things differently than rural folks, and obviously people different countries can have vastly different perspectives!

 

          If you spend enough time with people whose experience is different from your own, you become better at walking in their shoes. Can you read the biblical text with their eyes now? For example, if you’re a man, are you able to read the Gospel of Mark from a woman’s point of view? There are many strong female characters who show us the path to true discipleship. Look at Peter’s mother-in-law in Mark 1:31. On the surface, it seems like she fulfills the traditional feminine role of serving the men food, but notice the verbiage Mark uses here. She “ministers” (diakonew) to Jesus and the others, which is exactly what the angels did for Jesus in verse 13. Hence she is not merely acting according to gender roles but doing something heavenly as she serves Jesus in gratitude for her healing. Since female readers tend to focus more on female characters, they can help their male counterparts see things like this.

 

          You can also search online for people commenting on Scripture from a different viewpoint than yours, or you can find such materials arranged in hard copy. A multicultural perspective on the bible can be found in The People’s Bible, and you can also encounter feminine interpretations of Scripture in The Women’s Bible Commentary. On the subject of women’s interpretation, you can find whole commentaries on individual books of the bible in the newly published Wisdom Commentary series. Some of these sources are written for a more scholarly audience, but many of their insights are accessible to the general public. (And for a creative modern re-telling of the Prodigal Son story from a woman’s point of view, see Marilynne Robinson’s 2008 best-selling novel Home.)

 

          Talking to people of different walks of life is the best way to uncover the full breadth of a biblical text, but whatever approach you take, try to remain open to what others can teach you. You might encounter interpretations that make no sense to you or seem driven by some agenda. That happens sometimes. But don’t let that deter you from exploring. We’re bright people with a passion for learning more about God’s Word, and while we can accomplish a lot as individuals, we’re so much better together. After all, the bible wasn’t written just for you or me; it was written for all of us.