Karl Barth is the most influential and towering theological figure of the 20th century. This bespectacled, Swiss thinker single-handedly laid a devastating attack against the theological liberalism that was dominant in Germany during the early part of the 20th century. How did Barth become such a sensation in biblical and theological circles? Quite simply, he read his Bible.
Well, that and he was a theological genius, but his genius was given direction and focus from a profound experience of reading the Bible as a young pastor fresh from graduate education. Young Karl secured a pastoral post at the small rural parish of Safenwil, Switzerland. While there, he spent extended time reading the Bible without the overarching influence of his liberal graduate environment, its teachers and philosophies. As he read in the quietness of his study, he became compelled and entranced by the powerful nature of the biblical text. The Bible, he saw, was a saga—a long story of God with humanity, with profound highpoints and devastating low points, about a holy God with His incorrigible people. As Karl read, he felt drawn into what he called “the strange, new world” of the text.
It has been years since I first heard that story, but it keeps coming back to me. As I preach, teach and dialogue with young adults inside and outside the church, I find that often they have not been students of the Bible, have not spent much time reading it on their own or have read only the most familiar pieces such as the books of John or Romans. Worse, they have been shown through the hermeneutical style of well-meaning pastors or parents that the Bible is primarily a book of moral commands with each story there as a husk to be peeled off so we can find the main point or the biblical principle.
When we do that, it is perhaps a little too convenient to leave whatever is weird, different or offensive in the text on our personal editing room floor. We can pronounce with confidence, “the biblical principle is…” or what this passage is telling us is…” as a way to avoid oddities in the text. However, it seems to me that preaching and teaching only principles, pragmatic advice or outcome-oriented affirmations of middle-class values in time can alienate thoughtful and spiritually hungry young adults.
To follow the metaphor, perhaps some young adults are interested in what biblical teachers have left on the editing room floor—the director’s cut. Perhaps it is the strangeness, the oddity of the biblical characters, the funny customs, the terrible behavior that demonstrates something about the great juxtaposition of our flawed humanity and God’s stunning mercy that we must not abandon.
Now, it is definitely true the Bible is full of good, healthy moral commands and exhortations; but the Bible is also more than a book of moral commands. Barth, too, discovered a book not just of morality or correct theological ideas, but the description of a world created, sustained and directed by God. It was indeed strange to him and perhaps to us, as well, because we live in a society that denies the existence of God, who’s Son is named Jesus Christ. The Bible, on the other hand, tells us that we are placed in the world by a living God (
Case Study
I meet regularly with a group of young adults and talk about theology, philosophy and the Bible. I often go to listen and hear how they understand and interact with the biblical text. Recently, I attempted to lead a conversation about angels. I know this is a tricky topic because it is to some degree speculative, supernatural and weighed down with the baggage of so many bad animated movies. It also seems on first glance irrelevant to the current cultural questions people have about religion. Still, the subject is in the Bible and is part of the world God describes for us, so I wanted us to go there.
I presented some of the biblical texts about angels in Luke,
This generated a lively conversation; but despite the enthusiastic dialogue, it was difficult for some of them to embrace angel stories as an integral part of the Christian worldview. The strangeness or otherness in the angel stories in the text wasn’t something so much to ponder and wonder about, but for some only mythical leftovers from a more enchanted age. In fact, most thought angels are too mysterious and speculative to take seriously.
As I returned to my car after our meeting, I began to think about how I and my fellow youth pastor colleagues preached and taught teens in the past. Did we creatively invite young people into the strange and surprising Christian narrative of Old and New Testaments? Did we intentionally walk them through teachings about hell, angels, demons, miracles; further, did we pepper them with some good theological language that goes along with salvation, redemption, sin, covenant, incarnation and resurrection? Or did we avoid hard passages and more difficult theological concepts to make it easy to understand, engaging and entertaining?
If I were to go back, I would add more rigor and breadth to our communal Bible reading practices. I believe the earlier we do this in the youth program cycle the better. Eugene Peterson in his classic text Working the Angles says one of the key roles of the pastor is to “prevent revelation…from being treated as information.” Yes! Because moral information is generic and can come from all sorts of sources, but learning and instilling the truth that we live in God’s world comes from reading the Bible.
As theologian Stanley Hauerwas notes, “Israel and the church are not characters in a larger story called ‘world,’ but rather ‘world’ is a character in God’s story as known though the story that is the church.” This is a brain teaser. It might be easier to focus on the shorter part of the sentence: “world is a character in God’s story.”
Repeatedly, the biblical writers describe our world as the world God created and our lives as the lives God ordained. Can we help young people in our communities come alive to this truth as young Barth did? Perhaps our preaching and teaching needs to go through a renovation or revival and move from being explanation-oriented instead toward an entering God’s world approach.
A New Approach
Here are some practical ideas to help young people enter the strange, new world of the text:
1. Institute a reading curriculum for the cycles of junior, senior and college age. Commit to two or three books per year through the cycle. Include a heavy dose of historical and prophetic books from the Old Testament. By the time a student goes through junior and senior high, as well as two to three years of college small groups, they have covered more than 20 books of the Bible. A diploma ceremony, hallway of fame or some public congratulations would be a fun way to celebrate those who work all the way through the cycle.
2. Include public Scripture readings at your youth Bible study and growth events. This could be recitation of the text in a dramatic way with a single person or team or responsive readings from the Psalms. Everyone could stand for these readings. Avoid commentary about the passage at these times. Let the text speak for itself. I once asked a group to imagine they were Israelites on pilgrimage, and then we walked some stairways in our building as we recited together two of the traveling psalms from Psalms 120—134 together. It was awkward, but that was OK; awkward is way better than boring.
3. Take young people into the nitty-gritty texts of the Old Testament. Choose texts that often are ignored or considered too jarring. What about
4. If you are interested in moving from an informational model to an encountering and entering model, start by asking three simple interpretive questions: What do we learn about God in this passage? What do we learn about humanity in this passage? What do we learn about the world from this passage? We might be surprised by what God brings from the text.
5. Finally, spiritual formation guru David Brenner suggests another way to approach Scripture is to be “present to Jesus and to your own reactions.” Asking more value-based questions as you read will help the process: What do I like about this passage? What makes me uncomfortable? This is much more imaginative and subjective, but it can be another powerful means for entering the world of the text.
I wonder about the young people growing up in our churches. Is postmodern relativism gnawing away at the foundations of their faith? Will they, as many of Barth’s teachers at Basel, begin to accommodate themselves more and more to popular cultural beliefs against the strange parts of the Bible and fail to develop a robust sense of God’s world? Will they want to get rid of or avoid hell language, demons, angels, miracles and anything else that comes across as too speculative, silly or uncomfortable?
Learning to enter the Bible as a strange, new world is a process. It might take a while to push through the old, musty images—cartoon depictions, children’s Bible picture books—but if we keep pushing through, we can arrive in that strange place that is also delightful because this is where we meet God.
