In my previous post, I talked about self disciplines (or disciplines for the self) as specialty tools, and I noted that these tools are designed to do some things, but not other things. I especially noted that they are not designed to examine texts; they focus on one's own self. Here I want to illustrate that by looking at just one type of contemplative method: the Discovery Bible Study method (DBS).[1]  This is not an approach I use or promote; however, I am not attempting to trash the approach, only to use it as an illustration. No doubt, many would speak of their personal gain from this approach. 

What's in a Name

Although “Bible Study” is in the name, this is a highly personal, “what it means to me,” group experience, and it uses the Bible for personal reflection. DBS advocates four basic steps:

Can be Spirit guided:

1. What’s happening in my life?
2. Bible text.
3. What does this mean to me?
4. Obey!

Of course, this is simple, easy to remember, and easy to duplicate. Does it have any value? Of course it does! It can be inspiring, exciting, moving, meaningful, tear-jerking, or even calming! People cry, change their lives, or get highly motivated to act somehow. Can the Spirit use this method to transform people? Certainly! 

Now, let’s do something. Let’s just replace “Bible text” in item 2 with something else: 

Can also be Spirit guided:

1. What’s happening in my life?
2. All you need is Love! (Beatles)
3. What does this mean to me?
4. Obey!

Is This Valuable?

Could this be a valuable, Spirit-led exercise? Yes! Is either one of these Bible study? Well, the first certainly has more to do with the Bible than the second, but one starts and ends with oneself.  So this is more about personal introspection while using the Bible as a kind of reflecting pool.  Again, I’m not making fun of or “trashing” the approach, and I’m not saying that those who use this method put the Bible on the same level as a Beatles song.  I’m just thinking about this for a minute. 

DBS is an intensely personalized method using and reflecting on the Bible. It is not even trying to present itself (and that is fine) as a way to engage a biblical text on any kind of exegetical level; it is about engaging our own hearts and lives using a biblical text or anything else (e.g., a song, a book, a poem, a sunset, a mountain top, etc.) as a serious sounding board. As outlined, it starts with me; it ends with me. It is mostly about me and what I can find in a text that I think applies to me and to the human race.

Can this be valuable? Of course it can! If DBS brings people to the Bible on any level and gets them thinking and examining themselves, then great! I’m not being critical of that.

But is it Biblical Text Study?

Not actually, no; DBS is not Bible Study. Whatever they want to call it, this is qualitatively different from focused biblical text study, including the tools used to do that. That does not make their approach bad, but it is not biblical text study. It encourages Bible reading, and of course that is good; but it’s Bible reading from very specific personal perspectives and with highly personalized questions.

Regardless of the name, this method of personal reflection by reading the Bible is not set up to explore or discover the nature, meaning, intent, or possible implications of specific biblical texts; what they were trying to accomplish, what they were claiming, how they are structured or argued. Without doubt, participants might have opinions about those things (just from reading), but this method, as a method, does not provide the kind of steps necessary to actually accomplish that. The method as outlined does not have that as a goal, and it would be incapable of accomplishing that even it wanted to. (It would be like using short finishing-nails to hold your roof in place—not a good idea!) That is not what this method is designed to do.

Legitimate biblical text study does not start by focusing on me.[2] Until I know what Paul is asking or addressing (or Matthew, or Genesis, etc.), I don’t want to force my questions onto a text. Doing so will change the way I read it, understand it, and apply it.

Let’s suppose, for example, that we run over to Genesis 1 with a question of our own, like: “How does this address the question of science and the Bible?” When that is how we start, there is little or no chance of reading Genesis on its own terms. We have already set ourselves up to see the text through our own question. So, if we actually came across the questions that Genesis is addressing, we likely would not understand or find them relevant.[3] 

This same principle applies throughout the Bible with absolutely any text I (or you) can choose. If I start with a me-centered method of reading the Bible, I might find it very satisfying and enlightening, and I might feel closer to God; but I also might not be learning much at all from the Bible itself—except how to make it answer the questions that I want to ask.

Soon, coming in this series, I'll be laying out an approach that gives attention to all the areas I've written about in the past several weeks. So next week, I'll sum up where we have been and lay out where we are going. 

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[1] https://www.dbsguide.org/

[2] The goal should be, as much as possible, to see from other perspectives.

[3] At IABC we have a 14-week recorded class on Genesis 1-11, and we deal with this in detail.

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Click Here for the whole blog series:  Power-Reading the Bible 
 

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