Book Review of Shortt, John's Bible-Shaped Teaching

2024

This work explores the integration of a biblically shaped imagination into Christian education, with a focus on how teachers can help students engage with Scripture in meaningful and imaginative ways. Drawing from educational theories such as Jerome Bruner’s modes of cognitive representation and Lev Vygotsky’s social interaction theory, the text emphasizes the developmental and communal aspects of learning. Biblical imagination is presented as a powerful tool for students to internalize Scripture, not just intellectually but experientially, shaping their worldview through stories, metaphors, and symbols. Practical steps are outlined through a four-step process for lesson planning that includes identifying desired results, creating imaginative learning experiences, incorporating routines, and assessing worldview formation. Examples from subjects like algebra, science, and literature illustrate how biblical narratives can be integrated into the classroom to foster students' spiritual and academic growth. The work also addresses the challenges of assessing the long-term impact of biblical worldview formation, acknowledging that the true outcomes of this integration might not be evident until years later. Educators are encouraged to engage in personal devotional practices to develop their own biblical imagination, as the process of shaping students' worldviews begins with the teacher’s own spiritual formation. Through imaginative engagement with Scripture, the book seeks to cultivate a generation of students who not only possess biblical knowledge but whose lives are deeply shaped by the ongoing narrative of God’s redemptive work.

Neotestamentica, 2015

This edited book about reading the whole Bible is primarily aimed at undergraduates and adult Bible study groups (7). It follows the Christian church's intention to treat the Bible as Scripture and thus approaches the Bible in terms of "its overall unity" (157). Rather than presenting a detailed introduction to the historical or contextual issues surrounding the text, this book aims to provide readers of the Bible with the big picture of the biblical story (8). Each chapter represents a canonical unit and begins by framing the books within their contribution to the biblical metanarrative, followed by a discussion of their arrangement and placement within the biblical canon, their literary features, and the theological questions they evoke concerning God, God's people and God's world.

2022

The thesis of Green and Pasquarello’s work, Narrative Reading, Narrative Preaching: Reuniting New Testament Interpretation and Proclamation, is thus, “Narrative reading . . . is appropriate to all sorts of biblical texts . . .because ‘narrative’ is foremost a theological claim regarding the nature of Scripture and, especially, regarding its function in mapping the terrain of our lives (Green and Pasquarello, 36).” Green and Pasquarello’s purpose of writing can be stated succinctly as, “[T]o provide examples of reading and preaching that will contribute to the overcoming of such established divisions as theory and practice, text and sermon, academy and church, past and present (Green and Pasquarello, 9).”

Journal of Religious & Theological Information, 2019

Journal of Jewish Education, 2008

Christian Education Journal: Research on Educational Ministry, 2012

Since the middle of the 20th century, noted Old Testament scholars and theologians like Bernard Anderson, Hans Frei, Craig Bartholomew, and Michael Goheen have raised the concern that the contemporary church not only has lost reading and understanding the Old Testament as story, but that this loss has hindered its spiritual formation. While affirming their concern, qualitative research composed of interviews, narrative descriptions, and questionnaires of 138 college-aged students who largely identify with the Evangelical tradition will be presented showing that when the Old Testament is recovered as story, God is encountered, transformation is experienced, and faith is developed.

2013

publication-status: PublishedBiblos was a research project into teaching biblical narrative. It was based at the School of Education and Lifelong Learning (SELL) at the University of Exeter and led by Professor Terence Copley (biblos@exeter.ac.uk). Biblos was founded in 1996 with the aim of investigating how the Bible is, and should be, taught in Religious Education (RE) in England and Wales. It represented a working partnership between the RE team at Exeter and Bible Society. It has worked in New Zealand to compare findings in another English-speaking country. This report attempts to assimilate the key findings and research outcomes of the three UK phases of the Biblos Project by looking at the first two phases from the perspective of the third.The Bible Societ

Landas: Journal of Loyola School of Theology, 2018

Wondering about God Together: Research Led Learning and Teaching in Theological Education, 2018

Partly inspired by the recent popularity of fan fiction, fictional short stories based on the Bible can be set as assessment tasks in theological education. A number of different story types can be utilised: recontextualisation ('missing scenes'), refocalisation ('alternative perspective'), genre emulation, and (possibly) expansion ('prequels and sequels'). The creative process involved in coming up with a fictional viewpoint actually encourages the student to function at the higher levels of Bloom's cognitive domain, particularly synthesis. In contrast with traditional theological essays, Bloom's affective domain will also be involved. From personal experience the results of research conducted using this method are long remembered and have a definite impact on the writer. These are, of course, the hallmarks of deep learning. Some assessment considerations will also be discussed.