Biblical Interpretation Among Church of England Lay People

309 Pages·2009·19.393 MB·English

by  Andrew Village

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Biblical interpretation among Church of England lay people
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Biblical Interpretation
Among
Church
England Lay People
of
by
Andrew Village
dissertation in for
A the
submitted accordance with requirements
degree Doctor Philosophy Trinity College, Bristol
the of of of
by University Bristol
the
validated of
February 2003
Word Count
footnotes):
Main (including 75,856
text only tables and
Appendices, References & List Contents 15,589
of :
ALL MISSING PAGES ARE BLANK
IN
ORIGINAL
ABSTRACT
Biblical interpretation Church England laity by
among of was assessed
Eleven took in the final 1800
questionnaire. churches part survey:
distributed 404 Subjects healing
the
questionnaires were and returned. read
story in Mark 9: 14-29 and then responded to questions on the passage,
bible healing Liken
their attitudes to the and prayer. scales assessed
bible,
to the
attitudes morality, religious exclusivity and supernatural
healing. Personality Myers-Briggs
to the typology
was assessed according
the Keirsey Temperament Sorter.
using
Subjects from Evangelical had than
churches more conservative attitudes
those in Anglo-catholic Broad Attitudes to
or churches. were related
level function,
education and the perceiving personality and were clustered
level belief.
to
according of conservatism and charismatic
Literal interpretation declined Literal interpretation
the
of passage with age.
biblical declined level, but Evangelicals.
of events with education not among
Respondents interpretations
preferred that matched their preferred
judging functions. Those intuition
perceiving or personality who preferred
feeling likely
and were also most to identify with characters in the story.
Perception horizon familiarity
of separation was related to with the passage,
for interpretative horizon judging
and preference was related to attitudes,
function
level. There little
personality and education was evidence of strong
interpretation. Dependence for
community effects on on others
interpretation
was greater among women, negatively correlated with
level
education and positively correlated with age and personality
for feeling.
preferences sensing and
Findings are discussed in relation to the roles of the individual, the Holy
Spirit and the community in shaping interpretation, and to problems of
evaluating interpretations in the church. Factors external to the text are
important in but less in
generating meaning, are sometimes valuable
deciding between interpretations. Church fundamentally
and academy are
different worlds of discourse that overlap: the difference to be
needs
recognized, accepted and respected.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
like in
I to thank the many people who took part the pilot trials and
would
final I have the but this
survey. maintained anonymity of churches, should
detract from in
not the considerable sacrifice that many people made
distributing, I
completing and returning questionnaires. am particularly
grateful to incumbents and Parochial Church Councils who co-operated so
fully
the the
with objectives of study.
John Nolland, Trinity, has been
my supervisor at a patient and wise
counsellor through the long process of developing the ideas, creating the
His incisive
questionnaire and writing the thesis. questioning and clear
understanding of the key issues kept me from wandering too far off the
track. Leslie Francis became my external supervisor after the second pilot
background
study, and gave much needed advice on the theoretical and
difficulties beliefs.
practical of measuring attitudes and
The Trinity has been helpful I
staff at always most and encouraging, and
like to thank Su Brown in the library, Andrew Lucas in
would especially
administration, Hazel Trapnell in the post-graduate office, and the all the
secretarial and reception staff.
The by the Whitefield Institute the Bible Society,
study was part-funded and
I their Trinity
and gratefully acknowledge support and encouragement. also
bursary
allowed me a small to cover the costs of the SPSS program.
The Middleton Cheney Chacombe kindly
people of and parish churches
agreed to let me have a study-day a week. I may not have always taken it,
but for lack They Peterborough
that was not of their support. and the
diocese leave in 2001, in the
allowed me sabbatical which was crucial seeing
through.
project
have loving
All of the above would come to nought without the support of
family. My Elizabeth kept I had
my wife me going at several moments when
This is dedicated her: bad
thoughts of giving up. thesis to once was enough,
beyond
but double 'PhT' (Putting Hubby Through) is the
a well above and
duty!
call of
V
AUTHOR'S DECLARATION
I declare that the in this dissertation in
work was carried out accordance
Trinity College University Bristol. The
the the
with regulations of and of work
is original except where indicated by reference to other work in the text and
dissertation has been for degree.
no part of the submitted any other
Any views expressed in the dissertation are those of the author and in no
way represent the views of Trinity College or the University of Bristol.
The dissertation has been for
not presented to any other university
in the United Kingdom
examination either or overseas.
G
2
O3
SIGNED: . vJ DATE:
VII
CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
-iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
v
AUTHOR'S DECLARATION
VII
CONTENTS ix
-ý_
LIST OF TABLES
_xiii
LIST OF FIGURES
xvi
FOREWORD
xvii
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1
ý__ ýý
Chapter 1: General Introduction 3
Church discourse?. 3
and academy: separate worlds of
Academic interest in bible 4
the
versus popular
__ ------ ----- -__
Secular interest in bible 5
versus confessional the
------ -_
Academic biblical interpretation 7
The historical-critical
paradigm
_ ý__ý_ ----8
The literary-critical 11
paradigm
The 14
philosophical paradigm
_M --___-__
The ideological
paradigm 17
The
theological
paradigm
w ----20
Issues by biblical interpretation_____. 25
raised academic paradigms of
The historical-critical history
25
paradigm: versus story
-_---- -----
The literary-critical beyond 26
paradigm: meaning the text
---------
The interpretative horizons_- 28
philosophical paradigm: recognizing
The deciding between
theological interpretations 28
paradigm:
-------
PART TWO: THE EMPRICAL INVESTIGATION
- w_ý --31
Chapter 2: Introduction to the 33
survey
ý_ ýýý _
General 35
methods
final
The 35
questionnaire
_____
final
The
sample
-----37
final
How the 40
representative was sample??
___________________
Conclusion the
on sample
-ý ý_ýý ---46
Confounded
variables-
Chapter 3: Attitudes to the bible healing 51
and
Introduction 51
__
beliefs
Attitudes
and
__53
Personality 55
type
-------------------------------------------------
The Myers-Briggs 57
typology
-----------------
Methods
_
Measuring bible beliefs60
attitudes to the and other
Attitudes healing healing 62
to and the practice of prayer
------- -___
Bible background information 65
reading strategies and
Measuring 66
personality scores
---------- ---------
Results
Attitudes to the bible 67
- ------
Morality 69
and exclusivity--__ý__
--
Healing 71
---------------------------------------------------------
Charismatic belief 78
and practice
Summarizing by factor 80
attitudes analysis__________________
Discussion 89
Factors 89
shaping attitudes
---- -----------------
healing
Attitudes 91
and practice of prayer
---- -----
Conclusions- 92
_
Chapter 4: Literalism 93
Methods 93
historicity
Literalism
and
----
---93
Attitudes to healing in relation to literal interpretation
----- -----95
Results
-95
Literalism 95
---------
healing
Experience interpretation 105
of prayer and of the passage-
Discussion
__ __ý ---106
interpretation
Chapter 5: Personality 111
and
The Myers-Briggs type indicator 111
and religious preferences________
Methods
--112
Measuring 112
personality
__--__--------- ------------------------
Measuring interpretative 114
preferences
_ý ý_ý_-
Results__" __ 118
ý_ý_-_--
functions,
Frequency of types and temperaments 118
_ý___ý-------
Personality interpretative 120
and choices
Other factors influencing interpretative
choices
--124
Interpretation dominant 127
type
and
----- -_
Discussion
------127
Attitudes 127
and personality
----- ------------------- ______--------
Personality interpretative 129
and choices
133
Chapter 6: Horizon
separation and preference-
Methods 134
X
Results
_ý
in 136
Identifying with characters the story
----- -- - -----
Horizon 138
separation and application
______- ____
140
Horizon
preference
______ ____----------- ___------
Discussion 143
143
Horizon
separation and application
--- ----------
Horizon
preference
- -----145
146
Bridging the
gap------------------------------------------------
individual__ 147
Chapter 7: Interpretative the
communities and
148
Methods
Results__
-150
Variance by 150
tradition
and congregation
-------------------------
154
Independent
effects of church membership
__M ___-
Sense belonging 155
of
Dependency for interpretation-
on others
__ . -----157
162
Discussion
- _rý ý_
Community interpretation 162
effects on
____ý_M ------ _M ------
Other for interpretation 164
external sources
----------
The Holy Spirit 165
guidance of the
Chapter 8: Summary
the
of empirical results___ý_
. -------167
PART 3: THEOLOGICAL RESPONSE 171
Chapter 9: The Individual 173
The individual in historical- literary-critical 173
and studies
The individual in biblical interpretation- 178
postmodern
_
Valuing the individual in academic biblical interpretation
__ -182
Valuing the individual in the
church
----184
Chapter 10: The Holy Spirit 191
Post-reformation the Spirit the bible-------191
understanding of and
Issues in Pentecostal Charismatic hermeneutics 194
and
The illumination the 196
nature of and role of charismatic experience_
between 198
The
relationship original and novel meaning
___-
between illumination discernment 199
The
and
relationship
----------
bible by lay 200
The Holy Spirit
and reading people
_____-
Valuing the Spirit in biblical interpretation 201
__________
Chapter 11: The Community
. -___205
Stanley Fish interpretative
and communities
------205
The communal interpretation of scripture in the church 209
xi
The influence interpretation in this 212
study
of community on
Valuing the in biblical interpretation 215
community
_
Chapter 12: Evaluating interpretations in 219
church and academy
M_
Acknowledging diversity in
church congregations_---219
Evaluation interpretations in
of church congregations
-221
Validation by Holy Spirit 224
evidence of the work of the
Validation by interpreters----------- 228
the
evidence of character of
Validation by Christian 230
congregations
Biblical interpretation in the Fish Fowl 232
church: neither nor
Biblical interpretation in the the 234
church and academy
APPENDIX 1: DEVELOPMENT OF The QUESTIONNAIRE 243
Initial interviews 243
Results 244
Conclusions
-
first
The 246
questionnaire pilot
Results------ 247
----------------------- ------ýý-------
The 248
second questionnaire pilot
Results--------------------------------------------------------- 249
Conclusions 250
The third questionnaire pilot---
_ ------251
Results 254
APPENDIX 2: STATISTICAL TERMS AND METHODS
--259
Glossary terms 259
of and symbols
General 260
statistical methods
__
distribution____________ý_ý
The 260
normal
M --_
between
Association
categorical variables
----260
Correlation
of variables" _
- -----262
differences between
Testing the 262
significance of means
Analysis GLM
of variance and
------ _ý___ý ----262
267
Interpreting
graphs"
by factor 268
Grouping
variables analysis
269
Reliability
of attitude scales
REFERENCES CITED IN THE TEXT 271
__--_ ýý___- -
XII