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Introduction: Reading, Spiritual Engagement, and the Shape of Teaching |
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The various essays included in this volume all rest on two basic premises, both implied in its title. The first is that reading (not just what we read, but for present purposes more particularly how we read) has something to do with spiritual growth. The second is that the ways in which we teach the art of reading in classrooms across various subject areas have some bearing on how this relationship between reading and spiritual growth takes shape. These two premises invite the conclusion that it is possible to teach with the goal of spiritually engaged reading in mind (and, conversely, that it is possible to teach in ways that make such reading less likely). The essays gathered here work to tease out these basic matters in a more nuanced manner and in both theoretical and practical terms. |
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Understanding and Overstanding: Religious Reading in Historical Perspective |
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I SUGGEST THAT, in universities, we often use the word ‘understanding’
when we mean ‘overstanding’. This is connected to relying on limited
approaches to reading, ones that are forgetful of religious ways of
reading. I offer a critical retrieval of religious ways of reading,
practised in the past, and suggest how they might be included in the
university today, thereby providing a richer form of educational
experience for students. |
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Learning to Read with Augustine of Hippo |
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THE CONFESSIONS OF Augustine of Hippo can be read as a lesson in
reading, one in which Augustine teaches by example as well as precept.
Throughout this work, the relationship between faith and reading is
clearly on Augustine’s mind, as is his desire to teach others what he
has learned. As we consider our own approaches to the confluence of
faith, reading, and teaching, we have much to learn from Augustine’s
narrative self-portrait of himself as reader. After reviewing aspects
of this self-portrait, its implications for Augustine’s approach to
reading and for our own reading and teaching practices are considered. |
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Misreading Through the Eyes of Faith: Christian Students' Reading Strategies as Interlanguage |
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THIS ARTICLE EXPLORES some instances of students offering eccentric
interpretations of literary texts under the apparent influence of
elements of their Christian assumptions and identities. It suggests
that rather than viewing such incidents in terms of either error or
self-expression, it might be more fruitful to regard them as
representing a kind of interpretive interlanguage (a concept current in
applied linguistics) that draws imperfectly upon more developed models
of Christian interpretation. Four such models are identified and
related to students’ interpretive practices. |
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“Who Is My Neighbor?” Reading World Literature Through the Hermeneutics of Love |
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WORLD LITERATURE COURSES reflect both the academy’s and the Christian
community’s interest in a global education, but what theoretical
assumptions inform the teaching of world literature? The oft-cited
rationale for cultural diversity may prove insufficient if it leads
merely to the assertion of difference as a self-justifying good. This
essay claims a richer model of diversity, drawing on biblical themes as
well as recent definitions of world literature and cosmopolitanism, to
open up a hermeneutical space for transcultural understanding. The
essay also argues that the study of world literature in the Christian
classroom should be informed by a hermeneutic of charity which directs
our reading toward love of God and neighbor. |
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Transactional Reading as Spiritual Investment |
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THIS ARTICLE ADDRESSES how Christians can read wisely and well as
citizens of both God’s kingdom and an increasingly secular society. I
suggest that focussing on reading as a transaction between reader and
text rather than on the morality of texts or the maturity of readers
can provide a biblical approach for Christian educators seeking to
invest reading experiences with Christian faith. I also contend that
reading is one of the ways Christians should invest in a secular
society and that when readers sow their faith and invest their
spiritual lives in their reading transactions, they can grow
spiritually. |
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Approaching Interpretive Virtues Through Reading Aloud |
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EDUCATORS ARE OFTEN frustrated when students appear not to have
completed reading assignments carefully or attentively and seem
unwilling or unable to give a fair and balanced critique of what they
have read. This essay suggests that incorporating the practice of
reading aloud may help both to point out where students are stumbling
and to create an environment in which they can learn to pay close,
careful, just attention to a text. |
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On Charitable Teaching |
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IN EARLIER WORK on the hermeneutics of charity, the author explored the
relevance of Augustine’s insistence on charity in reading Scripture for
interpreters of non-biblical texts. This article shows how one might
bring such charitable reading into the classroom and reframe the
teacher’s task in its light. The article discusses some implications
for our understanding of teaching “methods”, close attention to
students, the nature of syllabi, and the role of attentive playfulness
in learning. |
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Volume 11 (2007) 