I
greatly appreciated the opportunity to preach at the Indiana District
Regional Encounter in Greencastle, recently. In this series, I'll
share with you what I shared with the women who gathered at TheStorehouse that day on what it means to live fully in the diverse
community God has designed for us. Enjoy and I welcome your comments
for further discussion.
Dr.
Mark A. Powell, professor of New Testament at Trinity Lutheran
Seminary, explains the concept of social location and biblical
interpretation in a short
video produced by Seedbed. “Social location,” he says,
“refers to those various factors that identify one person as
distinct from others in society.” These factors include, but are
not limited to, gender, marital status, nationality, age, and
economic status.
Scholars
have long recognized the connection between understanding social
location and proper biblical interpretation. Suffice it to say, any
first year theology student or indeed, anyone with a rudimentary
grasp of the basic steps of biblical interpretation recognizes the
need to scope out the who, what, why, and where of
a biblical author and their intended audience.
Yet
now, Dr. Powell states, scholars are paying closer attention to the
social location of the modern reader and how their personal
experiences, collective memory, and cultural backgrounds affect their
interpretation of biblical stories.
In
other words, if we as a group of adults and adolescents, or women and
men, or blue collar and white collar workers all read the same Bible
story, it's possible we will all derive a different meaning because
our social location influences which details we notice in the story
and which details we fail to consider.
Dr.
Powell tested the veracity of this idea with three separate classrooms
in three different cultural settings. Beginning with a familiar Bible
story, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Dr. Powell asked
the same question to each of his students to see how their social
location would influence their answers.
The Prodigal Son Among Swine, by Max Beckmann
First,
Dr. Powell asked his students in the United States to write down on
an index card their answers to the question, “In the Parable
of the Prodigal Son, why does the young man end up starving in
the pigpen?” Almost every one of his American students wrote the
same response, “Because he squandered his wealth.” In wild
living, no less!
The Tanzanian students overwhelmingly replied, "Because no one gave him anything." Surprised? Go ahead, read the parable again. This little tidbit is there as well. In fact, the Tanzanian students expressed shock at the inhospitality of a country (a country without honor) who would refuse aid to a stranger in need.
Is
that what you thought? Me, too. I don't think I've ever heard a
sermon about the prodigal son without a preacher condemning the son
for demanding his inheritance from his father and then foolishly
spending it all. If he's starving in a pig pen, we Americans like to
opine, he's got no one to blame but himself. Right?
A
seminary class in St. Petersburg, Russia gave Dr. Powell another
opportunity, as well as a very different cultural context, to ask a different group of students the very same question concerning
the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
In
the same way, the Russian students wrote their answers on index
cards, but unlike their American counterparts, the vast majority of
the Russian students expressed a completely different answer to the
question, "Why does the young man end up starving in the
pigpen?" Instead of saying, "He wasted all his
money," they replied, “Because there was a famine in the
land." And indeed, if you look up the text,
Jesus explicitly states, “About the same time his money ran out, a
great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve.”
Interesting,
right? So, what influenced the majority of the Russian students to
notice this particular detail while the American students ignored it?
History
During
World War II, Dr. Powell explains, the German army laid siege to the
city of Leningrad, blockading roads and refusing to allow food to
enter for almost three years. Between September 1941 and January
1943, historians estimate at least 600,000 people – 25% of
the population – died because a great famine swept
over the land we now know as St. Petersburg.
Social
location and biblical interpretation. Who we are, where we live, what
we remember affects our reading of scripture.
Lastly,
Dr Powell taught a class in Tanzania, East Africa. Curious to know if
the Tanzanian students would respond as the Americans or the Russians
he asked them the same question, “In the Parable of the
Prodigal Son, why did the young man end up starving in the
pigpen?” Their response may surprise you.
The Tanzanian students overwhelmingly replied, "Because no one gave him anything." Surprised? Go ahead, read the parable again. This little tidbit is there as well. In fact, the Tanzanian students expressed shock at the inhospitality of a country (a country without honor) who would refuse aid to a stranger in need.
The Prodigal Son Among the Pigs, by Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
Social
location and biblical interpretation. It matters. To be true to the
interpretation of scripture we need to be aware that our experiences,
inherent bias, and cultural conditioning affect our reading of it.
In Dr. Powell's experiment, every student in each
classroom gave a perfectly acceptable answer. However, and this is
important to note, none of the students gave a
complete answer. Not one. Hear me now. Each student had a correct
answer, but not one had a complete answer. Why? Because our cultural
perspectives, collective memory, and social interactions affect which
details we notice and which we disregard as a group.
If we,
as students of the Bible, desire more than just a correct answer but
a complete answer, then we must study and interpret scripture in
community. God purposefully designed a diverse community for his
people to depend on one another and learn together. In other words,
we cannot consistently read and interpret scripture alone nor solely
with people who always look and sound just like us. Not if we truly hunger
for a more thorough and honest rendering of God's word.
Dr.
Powell's experiment is just one example of why we need to live fully
in the diverse community God has designed for us. We all
have some vague notion that the idea of community is important, but
in the next few weeks, I will endeavor to convince you that
learning to live fully in the diverse community God has designed for
us is not just a good idea, but absolutely essential to our health
and well-being as the body of Christ.
