Teaching Scripture in the Classroom

(From the text - Religious Education - Archdiocese of Brisbane, 2013)

 

The study of scripture in a classroom context takes the reader into the world of Jewish and Christian believers.  Teachers need to develop reading and interpretation skills to appreciate the understandings of God and religious experiences that are presented in Biblical texts.

 

In order to discover the sacred author's intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the literacy genres in use at that time and the modes of feeling, speaking and narrating then current.

 

The Bible is firmly grounded in history in the Jewish people, the historical events surrounding Jesus of Nazareth and the history of the early Christian communities.  However, we must keep in mind, that each book in the Old and New Testaments have been written from the bias of faith.  The aim was never to write history, but rather to proclaim the wonders that God has worked in the midst of people and to interpret those events so that others might have faith.  Ordinary, every day language is inadequate for such a task, so the Biblical authors made extensive use of symbol, metaphor and imagery.  Therefore the teacher and student of scripture needs to ask not Did this really happen? but rather, What does this text mean?

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Engaging students in a critical study of scriptural texts involves research into historical issues raised in the text; identification of the text type and textual features; exploration of the setting, characters, structure, plot and attention to the context and function of the text, within the specific book in which it is located, as well as the Bible as a whole.

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To do so, the Religious Education Curriculum is organized across four groupings, to assist in the teaching of the Three Worlds of the Text:

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Click on the above links to access the Mandated texts deconstructed into the Three Worlds of the Text.