Description: In modern times the relationship between the church and academy has been strained and tension-filled. Mainstream church culture has often been skeptical of Bible scholars, depicting them as self-serving intellectuals trying to out-think God by devising new and controversial interpretations. Just as well, academics have often leveled harsh critiques against church culture, painting pastors and laity as anti-intellectual pseudo-spiritualists. Entering the Fray argues that, in spite of the wide gap between the academic and ecclesiastical worlds, the modern church should be aware of...

About the Contributor(s):
T. Michael W. Halcomb is a PhD candidate at Asbury Theological Seminary. He is the author of People of the Book: Inviting Communities into Biblical Interpretation, Entering the Fray: A Primer on New Testament Issues for the Church & Academy, and A Handbook of Ancient Greek Grammatical Terms: Greek-English and English-Greek.

Description:
We live in an era when the Bible appears to be less and less relevant to mainstream cultures. Those who do care about the Scriptures tend to derive their interpretations secondhand, from the preachers pulpit or from generalized study guides written by complete strangers. These approaches overlook the communal and conversational nature of the Bible itself. If we hope to recover the transformative power of these ancient texts, and invite our world to reconsider their significance, we will need to engage whole communities together in the bottom-up task of interpretation. People of...