by
Dale Morgan
RE: Assessment of Horizons Bible Study 2004-2005 [1]
Hello, Sylvia!
I found your address on the website and am sending the following to you to share with your friends at VOW. I hope that it may be helpful.
I have read your thought-provoking questions concerning the 2004-2005 Horizons Bible Study. Since the questions begin “does the author–” and “does the writer–” I thought I should reply since I am the author and writer and who is more familiar with the author- and-writer’s intentions than I am? I hope these responses will be helpful and that they will find their way into your own response to the study.
1. Does the author take the scriptural context seriously? That is to say, does she carefully note when the passage was written, why it was written, and to whom it was written? Further, does she set forth the clear and plain sense of the passage before she attempts to apply its meaning to the lives of women today?
I do indeed! The point of the study is to look at the words we have from women who were quoted in scripture. This was an epiphany for me, a true experience of the Holy Spirit, when I suddenly noticed that the women were actually speaking. This may seem like old stuff to some readers, but it wasn’t old stuff to me. The quoted words leaped off the page, just as if they had been captured from the air intact as they had been spoken all those generations ago — and I could “hear” the laughter and pain of Sarah and Hagar, the loving conversations of Ruth and Naomi, the psalms of Hannah and Mary the mother of Jesus, the testimony of Mary Magdalene. The point of the study was to go beneath all the teachings and traditions we have heard during our own lifetimes in order to listen to what the women actually said when their words were spoken. The writing of the passages, the audience for whom they were written, etc., were secondary issues; the main point was to read the words that were spoken.
Granted, the scriptures were probably passed on first in an oral tradition and then later edited into written scrolls. The study could have been called “What She Is Said to Have Said” — or, since they were probably penned by male scribes, “What He Said She Said” …and so on, infinitum. But there’s no way to get to the very beginning of such a string of transmissions. I took the words as written as words they had spoken.
2. Is there a contemporary political, philosophical or theological “agenda” that the author reads into her understanding of the text, or is the text allowed to speak for itself?
The text is allowed to speak for itself. That’s the point. The agenda, if there is one, is to remove extraneous views that have been presented through the years. By listening to what Hagar said I have come to appreciate Hagar in a new way. She heard an angel of God! She named God! God rescued Hagar and her child! By listening to the slave girl of Philippi, I have come to appreciate her as the sort of prophet anticipated by the prophet Joel who was quoted by the apostle Peter at Pentecost: “your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy…” (Acts 2:17). When we look at what Luke wrote, we see that he did not say that the slave girl had an “evil” spirit (as I was taught in Sunday School); she had a “spirit of divination” (Acts 16:16). And when we look at what she said (!), we see that she was aware, fully aware, of who Paul was: “[a] slave of the Most High God who will show you the way of salvation!” Paul was annoyed by her persistence, but I hear her testimony — and hearing that, have come to think of her in a new way. Between the first lesson on Hagar and the final one on the slave girl are seven other studies of women whose quoted words have made a difference in how I read their stories and find words for my own testimony of faith.
3. What speaks with the most authority to the author — the plain meaning of scripture itself or other, extra biblical, sources?
Again, the whole study is about the scripture itself. Other contemporary authors are quoted, of course; they always are in studies such as this one. But the focus, from beginning to end, is on the Bible and the words we read there.
4. Does the writer consistently write from a Trinitarian perspective, lifiting up the one God who has been revealed to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
As a Christian, I have no other view than a Trinitarian view! This is the gift God has given to us — to know the encouragement, comfort, and continual prodding of the Holy Spirit, to believe in and to love with heart, mind, strength, and soul God the Father and Creator of all, and to follow Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, giving glory and praise to God through him.
5. What is the mission emphasis of the study? Does it hold up the person and work of Christ and his power to transform individual lives, as of equal importance to political, social and economic change?
Again, that is where the study leads. Our Lord changed the lives of Mary and Martha — she who confessed the faith so powerfully! — she to whom Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25-27). Jesus so completely healed Mary of Magdala that, like the other disciples, she left everything and followed him! Her words became the first Easter sermon ever preached — and had she not said what she said, we might never have heard the Easter news. Lydia’s mind was opened to hear Paul’s words and she opened her house to become the first church in Europe. My point is, when we look at what she said, the spoken words of biblical women, we hear our own call in a new way; we are empowered not just by the teachings we have received, but by the actual words of women who were called by God and who knew Jesus Christ as teacher, healer, savior, and friend.
6. When you have finished studying each lesson, do you have a deeper understanding of what it means to be an obedient disciple of Jesus Christ?
As the author, I can’t answer that question for the reader, but it is my continuing prayer that women who read the study WILL have a deeper understanding of discipleship — AND a new sense of entitlement and power when it comes to sharing their own words of faith. Over the past few months I have been leading seminars on this study in various synods of our church and have been thrilled to hear enormous enthusiasm for the project — across the spectrum of theological perspectives we Reformed Presbyterians represent (including, of course, Voices of Orthodox Women). It is my deep prayer that, by going to these quoted words of the scriptures, we women today may find our common faith and that together we may celebrate as sisters in Christ, sisters of differing, yet kindred, minds.
When you have a chance, I hope you will also read the companion book, “What She (Could Have!) Said,” particularly the entries by women who knew Jesus — Martha of Bethany, Mary of Magdala, and Lydia of Philippi.
May our gracious God watch over us; may we continue to be faithful and obedient disciples of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior; and may the Holy Spirit continue to bring us closer together in peace.
Thank you for your attention and consideration.
Dale
[1] http://layman.wpengine.com/Documents/Doc0174.aspx