Bible,  Parenting

Telling God’s Story

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Telling God’s Story: A Parent’s Guide to Teaching the Bible has been food for the soul. I first saw the book over at the Peace Hill Press site and felt mildly curious. Now that I’ve read it, I’m putting it on my shelf of formative books.

The Bible has always been a central part of our family life. I’ve read Bible storybooks to the girls, and this year we’ve tried a Bible-reading plan. My approach has been basically to make sure the Bible is heard and read, without really having any sort of structured curriculum.

But I’ve had misgivings at certain times — not so much feeling the need for structure as realizing that I don’t really have a plan for dealing with the difficulties that come up. I’ve believed that it’s better to wait for a certain maturity level before dealing with certain parts of the Bible, but at the same time I’ve thought God’s word always has value, and he can do a better job of handling any difficulties than I can; better not to censor or over-explain.

In some respects, this is true. I believe children can deal with more profundity than we sometimes think they can. Where we might be tempted to oversimplify a story or make it “easier,” they can receive it in its complexity without reducing it, simply acknowledging the line between what they comprehend and what they don’t. Maybe they are more comfortable with mystery than adults, and therefore wiser.

But in general I’ve been growing less comfortable with my somewhat laissez-faire approach. It’s been accentuated lately as I’ve been supplementing my morning reading, which usually consists of a fairly short section of Scripture along with prayer and meditation, by listening to a number of passages through the YouBible app on my phone as I’m getting ready for the day. This has meant that the girls hear it too, and at first I was pleased about this. My youngest in particular would come running when she would hear it get started, plant herself on the floor with her back to the heater, and listen. But I’ve kind of ground to a halt with that as the contrasts between Jesus’ acts of compassion are heard side-by-side with the wrath of God in various Old Testament passages. The end result was incoherence; I was having a hard time with it myself, and I felt it was unwise to subject the girls to it either.

Telling God’s Story proposes a method to introducing the Bible, one that’s roughly classical in its outlines and therefore sensitive to the maturity level of children. It has three movements. In the early grades, focus on Jesus. In the middle grades, focus on the pattern of the Bible — on its different movements as God works out through history his plan of salvation. And in high school, focus on understanding the Bible in its settings.

Enns explains each of these stages with clarity. I appreciated his critique of some alternative approaches: the Bible story approach, the character study approach, and the defending the Bible approach. He doesn’t blast these out of the water, but he does point out some shortcomings to each approach, some of which I’d thought of before, others of which I hadn’t.

I appreciate his perspective because there is no anxious tendency to wrest the Bible into something it’s not. Sometimes in reading the Old Testament, I have questions: Why Abraham? Why Noah? Why does God seem surprised at the evil of humankind at the time of the flood, and so impulsive in response? What conclusion should I draw about the Bible’s similarity to other ancient texts in its creation story, its flood story, its fall story?

Enns actually addresses these things, acknowledging that the Bible is an unfolding story. “Not every bit of mature theology is downloaded into the opening chapters of Genesis,” he writes, “and it is very important that we allow the biblical story to be told the way God wants to tell it. There is a purpose to all this. The Bible is heading in a certain direction, and we need to allow the story to unfold as it does.”

Enns has apparently gotten into trouble in some circles, as this piece summarizes. I notice that although some of his books for adults can be found at CBD, this book — and its accompanying curricular materials — are not there. But I didn’t find anything controversial in this book. It seemed to me eminently sensible, and I came away personally enlightened by Enns’ explanation of the big picture of the Bible. (I didn’t have trouble with C.S. Lewis’ characterization of the Bible as an “untidy and leaky vehicle,” either — in fact, I thought these two writers’ perspectives had some things in common. But Enns actually does a better job of showing the overriding order and development in its themes.)

Will I follow this approach to a T? It’s too late, for one thing. My third and sixth graders have already had a steady diet of Old Testament stories for years. For another, I will never be entirely convinced that my total control over my children’s exposure to God’s word would be best. I think of Marilynne Robinson’s poetic tribute to the Scriptures’ multifaceted influence, and I agree:

I believe the entire hyptertrophic bookishness of my life arose directly out of my exposure, among modest Protestant solemnities of music and flowers, to the language of Scripture. Therefore, I know many other books very well and I flatter myself that I understand them — even books by people like Augustine and Calvin. But I do not understand the Bible. I study theology as one would watch a solar eclipse in a shadow. In church, the devout old custom persists of merely repeating verses, one or another luminous fragment, a hymn before and a hymn afterward. By grace of my abiding ignorance, it is always new to me. I am never not instructed.

Yet I found in Telling God’s Story something I needed, too. The essence of the classical approach to education is that teacher and pupil are both learning together at different levels, and it seems Bible study is one of its richest applications. I felt I learned from, and was inspired by, Telling God’s Story, and I look forward to enfolding my children in some of the wonder of that with me.

 

2 Comments

  • Amy @ Hope Is the Word

    Thanks for the review. I know of the controversy and honestly hadn’t given the book much thought; in fact, I really didn’t know it was a WTM-type book, as in a way to approach the Bible. I think I’d like to read it!

  • Janet

    He has two years worth of curriculum created so far, but the approach is a 12-year one, from elementary through high school.

    I think his earlier book about inspiration is more controversial, but this one made a lot of sense to me. He believes in the inspiration of Scripture, and doesn’t discredit any of it — just suggests waiting to introduce some of the more complex stuff till kids have a little more maturity.

    Basically it has a similar perspective to Annie Sullivan’s, in addressing the Bible with Helen Keller. “Children ask profound questions but often receive shallow answers.” (I posted on it here: https://www.acrossthepage.net/2007/09/to-read-or-not-to-read/ )