CRITICAL THINKING & SCRIPTURE

NEVILLE BARTLEY | Youth Team Leader, SUNZ

Critical thinking is a term used all through education and a catch phrase of business today. Unfortunately, Christians often seem to think that church is not the place for it. Some may argue that Christians are meant to be loving and understanding rather than critical. I believe this viewpoint reflects a lack of understanding of what critical thinking really is and its value to help us engage with scripture.

What is critical thinking?

Peter Facione, a Los Angeles-based education research consultant, has written:

‘Critical thinking is skeptical without being cynical. It is open-minded without being wishy-washy. It is analytical without being nitpicky. Critical thinking can be decisive without being stubborn, evaluative without being judgmental, and forceful without being opinionated.’ 1

A slightly more humorous definition attributed to Richard W. Paul says:

‘Critical thinking is thinking about your thinking while you’re thinking in order to make your thinking better.’ 2

Critical thinking is a tool to help distinguish between facts and opinions or assumptions. Many things that we have been taught to be facts will, when tested, turn out to just have been somebody’s opinion. Testing is an important skill for followers of Jesus to have so we can evaluate what we read online or are taught from the pulpit, theological college or our small groups. We have a freedom today to think, analyse, test and make sure that we understand as much as we possibly can about what God is saying to us through scripture. So here are some tips and tools that I hope will be useful for you as you engage with Scripture on your own and with others. All our study of scripture at Scripture Union NZ (SUNZ) recognizes the role of the Holy Spirit. We know that the Spirit of God was active in the life and hands of those who penned scripture. The Spirit of God guided the words of the prophets as they spoke to their generation. And the Spirit of God speaks to readers of scripture today to help us to understand what we are reading and its relevance to our lives. I like to think the role of the Spirit is to allow readers to understand the text in a way that will transform them into the image of Christ. Before we start critical thinking about scripture we must recognize our own biases, opinions, and assumptions, and then put them to one side. Without this, we will just end up using critical thinking to justify what we already believe.

Another important part of thinking critically is to recognize that the same words can mean very different things to different audiences and at different times. Just look at the varying reactions of different groups to Donald Trump’s speeches! Or think about how differently the words ‘I love you’ might be interpreted depending on whether you were watching a stand-up comedian, being scorned by your sarcastic offspring, or spending a tender moment. with your beloved. Every day, without even thinking about it, we analyse the context of words (where, when, by whom and to whom), assess the nature of the language and decide the genre of literature. After that, we start to discern the meaning we should take from the words and how we should respond. Analysis comes before application. This is the sort of critical thinking we can also apply to our biblical study. Who was the biblical audience? How does our situation today differ from theirs? Is there a theological principle here, and is it consistent with the rest of the Bible? How do these things guide the way I apply this passage in my life today?3 Seven principles for thinking critically about scripture that were devised by the New Testament professor James Davis4 have been helpfully presented like this by Cedrick Valrie5: • Gain the biblical writer’s perspective. • Consider context. • Distinguish plain speech from figurative language. • Use other scriptures to help interpret. • Separate interpretation from application. • Distinguish between the Old and New

Covenants. • Consider the Type of Literature. If we can learn to run these steps through our minds as we engage with scripture, and we allow the Spirit of God to guide us as we do, then I believe that scripture will bring transformation into our daily lives. I leave you with a quote from Linda Elder and Richard Paul:

‘Thinking is not driven by answers but by questions. To think through or rethink anything, one must ask questions that stimulate thought. Questions define tasks, express problems, and delineate issues. Answers, on the other hand, often signal a full stop in thought. Only when an answer generates a further question does thought continue its life. This is why you are thinking and learning only when you have questions.’6

NEVILLE HAS A 3-HOUR WORKSHOP ON TOOLS AND TIPS FOR CRITICAL THINKING FOR STUDYING SCRIPTURE. PLEASE CONTACT SUNZ IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORE.

1 Peter Facione, Critical Thinking: What It Is and Why It

Counts, California Academic Press, 2006.

2 https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/475765-criticalthinking-is-thinking-about-your-thinking-while-you-rethinking

3 J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays, Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-on Approach to Reading. Interpreting, and Applying the Bible, 3rd ed., Zondervan, 2012, p17.

4 James Davis, Lesson 6: Principles of Biblical

Interpretation, Bible.org, accessed 17 March 2021 from https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-6-principles-biblicalinterpretation 5 Cedrick Valrie, Engaging Critical Thinking: Teaching

Christian University Students How To Improve Their

Thinking, George Fox University, 2016, accessed 17

March2021 from https://digitalcommons.georgefox. edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1144&context=dmin

6 Linda Elder and Richard Paul, Critical Thinking: Teaching Students How to Study and Learn (Part IV), Journal of Developmental Education 27, no. 1 (Fall 2003): p36.