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Enhancements to Inductive Bible Study
InterVarsity/USA Bible Study Task Force
April, 1999
Inductive Bible study simply means from the Bible out- starting with
the Biblical text, approaching it with humility and with as few
preconceptions as possible, and working out from the words of the text to
interpretations, meanings, and applications. This is the opposite of
starting with a pre-conceived idea or meaning and working that back into
the text. There are a variety of methods and styles of doing inductive
Bible study. No method is sacred. All are man-made. Methods need to be
updated with the times. Our sense is that the basic methods of inductive
Bible study that we use in InterVarsity do not need to be reinvented, but
do need to be rethought. They need to be enhanced. Thus we present our
Enhancements, which we would like to commend to all staff who teach Bible
study, no matter what method they are using.
The InterVarsity/USA Bible Study Task Force studied the current
situation in InterVarsity. We looked at the history of Bible Study within
InterVarsity, at Postmodernism, at a theology of the Word, at contemplative
theology and practice, at our own experiences, and at the considerable time
we spent together in the Scriptures. We developed this set of principles
we are calling enhancements to inductive Bible study. These enhancements
are not presented to be trendy. We feel that they are timeless, deriving
from the Word itself. They flow out of our passion for the Scriptures and
our desire to see the Bible studied and taught with power and relevancy
within InterVarsity. They are intended to be used far beyond the comings
and goings of specific student generations. We hope that they will become
the heart and soul of the way that we teach and do Bible study in
InterVarsity:
1. The passion of the teacher for Jesus and His Word is the key.
* The crucial element in any Bible study or Bible study training is
the passion of the teacher. A teacher can be trained well and teach a
Bible study or Bible study method that is technically correct. But for
there to be real power in the Bible study the teacher must have a passion
for the Word of God, a passion for the Jesus whose living Word this is, and
a passion to see students come to love the Word. A teacher needs spiritual
power as well as technical acuity.
2. We seek both the truth of the passage and to experience Jesus in His
Word.
* An important purpose of inductive Bible study is to discover the
truth of a passage and apply that truth to life. But an equal purpose must
be to experience Jesus in His Word. One without the other is out of
balance. Seeking both doctrinal truth and an experience of the presence
and power of Jesus in His Word are the expectations with which students and
teachers should enter the study. Actually, these are not separate since
truth in the Bible is encapsulated in a Person, Jesus Himself (John 14:6).
So experiencing Jesus in His Word is discovering truth.
3. We are dealing with a living Word, not a dead letter. God=s Word, as
God Himself, often offers surprises, and challenges our traditional
cultural assumptions.
* The Word of God is alive, not a dead letter from which laws are
derived. God is a God of surprises. When believers approach Bible study
they are encountering a living word, not analyzing a dead fish. God’s Word
sometimes contains surprising paradoxes. An important part of inductive
study, and narrative reading, is noticing unexpected twists in the text
and deeply pondering their meaning. Similarly, believers who study the
Bible inductively need to be open to the fact that the living Word
challenges long-held cultural assumptions. The Pharisees of Jesus’ time
were locked into an interpretation of the Old Testament which led them to a
certain view of the kind of person the Messiah would be. This caused them
to be blinded to the Messiah when He stood right in front of them. It took
students of the Bible nineteen centuries to hear what God’s Word really
said about God’s abhorrence of slavery. Students of God’s living Word need
to be open to the fact that the Word challenges our cultural assumptions in
surprising ways.
4. Re-living or entering the text emotionally, is an important method of
observation.
* The basic method of observation of a text taught today within
evangelicalism is to observe the facts by finding the who, what, when,
where, and how in a passage; and by finding laws of composition in a
passage such as repetition, contrast, and similarity. But there is another
valid observational method that needs a stronger emphasis: the
observational method of re-living the story of the text, entering the story
emotionally as well as analytically, and identifying with the characters.
5. There must be a balance between the intellectual/analytical and the
experiential/ contemplative in Bible study.
* Church history reveals that the Bible is most powerfully studied
when there is a balance of the analytical and the experiential, as in the
approach of Jesus and Paul, the approach of the Reformers, and in the
Wesleyan revivals. There are abuses on the experiential side today, but as
a whole contemporary inductive Bible study tends to lean too much toward
the analytical, scientific side of Bible study. A strong experiential
component must be added as a balance without losing the solid observation
and analysis that has characterized inductive Bible study.
6. Forming good questions about the text is a key to interpretation.
* The heart of good inductive Bible study should be the forming of
good questions about the text, questions which will probe the depths of the
text and uncover layers of meaning which may not appear on the surface.
7. Studying in community is vital.
* Although it is important for individuals to know how to study the
Scriptures and be independent students of Scripture, Bible study is best
done in community. The more diverse the community of believers studying
the Bible, the richer the study will be because they will see more in the
text. Studying in community is also a hedge against false or bizarre
individualistic interpretations. Community also helps challenge false
worldviews or personal assumptions.
8. Teachers need to also be learners, and see the learners as teachers.
* Contemporary educational theory stresses empowering learners rather
than just feeding them information from up front. In studying the
Scriptures in community, it is important that teachers see themselves as
teacher/learners and see the students as learner/teachers. This is in line
with Jesus’ view of teachers in Matt. 23:8,10-12. Inductive Bible study
needs to be taught as a dialog, respecting the learners, learning from
them, and empowering the learners to be able to search the Scriptures on
their own.
9. The experience of the reader needs to be woven into the study as it
goes along.
* The experience of the reader, which the reader brings to the text,
is important to acknowledge early on in the study and weave into the study.
In good inductive Bible study, the Story in the text engages and transforms
the story of the reader. This cannot happen unless the reader’s experience
is woven into the discovery of the Story in the text.
10. The narrative nature of Scripture needs to be emphasized.
* Not only are there straightforward narratives in the Bible, such as
the Gospels, Acts, and the Old Testament historical books, but the whole
sweep of Biblical history is a narrative; it is the Story of God’s
redemptive history. Even Bible books that are thought to be didactic, such
as the epistles to the Romans or Ephesians, contain strong narrative
elements. The narrative nature of Scripture must be taken into account as
we approach Bible study.
11. Inductive Bible study helps us find main points, but they need to be
held with humility and openness to further light.
* In stark contrast to the conclusions of Postmodernism that there is
no intrinsic meaning in a text and that the intent of the author is
irrelevant, John 1 and other passages show that there is meaning in the
Word and that the intent of an author of a text is important to discover.
Passages have main truths that run through them, and the tools of inductive
study are the best way to come near to the main point of a passage.
However, those who study the Bible inductively need to hold these main
points with a certain humility. All people are blinded by their own
culture, by their personal experiences, and by the limits of their personal
experiences as they approach a text, and no one can approach a text
completely objectively and see all that is there. All main truths are
subjective in some sense and need to be open to correction. This should
inspire students of the Bible to even deeper study, asking more questions
of the text so that more layers of truth are uncovered. This is also an
important reason to study in community as well as individually.
12. Bible study is an art, and needs to engage our creative and sensing
side.
* The study of a text is an art rather than a science. Creative ways
need to be developed to engage more of the senses in the study of the
Bible, and to take into account different learning styles. Aesthetics and
the arts such as drama, video, and other media should be creatively
employed, especially in teaching the method of inductive Bible study.
13. Inductive Bible study is about discovery
* The strength of inductive Bible study is that it helps students
discover the meaning of the text for themselves and not depend on teachers
and preachers. Meanings arise from the text rather than being forced onto
the text. Yet there is a tendency on the part of teachers to become more
and more deductive the more experienced they get. There is a temptation to
tell the students what the passage means, or manipulatively lead them to
discover the teacher’s conclusions, or to spend too much time applying the
study in the way that the teacher was moved by the passage. Teachers need
to constantly remind themselves that InterVarsity specializes in inductive
Bible study, letting the Bible speak for itself. The teacher is a
facilitator of discovery, teachers and students form a hermeneutical
community around the text, and the conclusions of the group are sometimes
different from those the teacher had discovered on his or her own.
Questions or comments? Email
the
InterVarsity/USA Bible Study Task Force:
Bgrahmann@ivcf.org
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