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Nearly half (48 per cent) of all Americans used the Bible regularly in 2019, according to the American Bible Society's 2019 State of the Bible report. Presumably, near did and so to brand a connection with God and deepen their faith.

It's surprising, then, that only about half of those who utilise the Bible regularly (24 per cent), according to ABS' survey, said they had discovered the connectedness and transformation they were looking for.

Reading the Bible Proverbs

An individual reads the book of Proverbs in the Bible. Movie: Joel Muniz/Unsplash/Creative Eatables

Protestant traditions nearly Biblical interpretation may exist partially responsible for our struggle with Scripture. Article six of the Anglican Thirty-9 Manufactures of Organized religion, for example, states that "Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that information technology should exist believed every bit an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to conservancy."

In other words, if it's not in the Bible in black and white, nosotros tin can't require you to believe information technology.

"Most half (48 per cent) of all Americans used the Bible regularly in 2019, according to the American Bible Society'southward 2019 Country of the Bible report...It's surprising, then, that only about half of those who utilize the Bible regularly (24 per cent), according to ABS' survey, said they had discovered the connectedness and transformation they were looking for.  "

The irony, of course, is that this articulation of Scriptural sufficiency exists within a careful outline of religion outside of the Biblical text. Individual estimation guided by reason is encouraged, but only in relation to some form of philosophical framework or systematic theology that establishes boundary lines betwixt orthodoxy and heresy, between what is apparent and what doubtable.

In that location'southward nothing wrong with having a philosophical or theological framework, of course. No one reads or interprets religious texts in a vacuum. Whether reading along the grain of the Westminster Catechism or exploring the tensions of a narrative with womanist critique, Protestant categories of Scriptural engagement are deeply rationalistic.

We also recognise that reason is just i style we engage with Scripture, since we too can't ignore human emotion.

The tendency to conceive of Scripture in emotional terms can be seen in the same American Bible Society study. Soliciting views of the Bible's overall intent, the choices on the survey were: (a) a rulebook or guide to alive the best life, (b) knowing what God expects of me, and (c) a alphabetic character from God expressing love or salvation.  Of these three choices, ii are highly rational (rules or expectations) and i is highly emotive (a love letter).

Simply these ii choices, rationalism and emotionalism, ignore an essential fashion that we make connections and maintain satisfying relationships with God.

Think of our relationships with other people. Using reason alone, we may learn a lot nearly someone, but can't actually "know" them. We may read People magazine, for instance, and learn all nearly our favourite celebrities, but the people themselves still remain strangers. On the other paw, we can exist attached to someone emotionally but non really know or understand them. A toddler is highly emotionally attached to their caretaker merely doesn't take the capacity for a mature relationship.

Complete relationships with other people, and with God in Scripture, also require imagination. Why? Because imagination creates the context for empathy.

When a friend shares the story of their beingness bullied by a boss or co-worker, we don't have to have had the same experience to empathise with their experience. We tin imagine what it'due south like to exist bullied. We tin can imagine what it's similar to worry nearly an unhealthy piece of work environment. And, having imagined, we can show empathy to our friend.

"Complete relationships with other people, and with God in Scripture, also require imagination. Why? Because imagination creates the context for empathy."

Imaginative reading invites us to utilize observations about language, context, repetition and disharmonize, to place ourselves in the midst of the unfolding drama. We imagine the story as a participant within rather than an outside observer. Reading with the imagination transforms habits of heart and mind in ways that reading for data, understanding and even moral exhortation does not.

One of the almost profound of Jesus' teachings, for example, is found in the Gospel of Luke, the parable of the adept Samaritan. The parable emerges out of a lawyer'southward desire to experience the eternal life Jesus was preaching almost. A lawyer asks Jesus, "What must I do to inherit eternal life ?" Jesus' response points out that the lawyer already knows the answer. If he wants to feel God's life, he needs to love God with everything he has and love his neighbour as himself.

Jesus' challenge, "Do this and you will live," masterfully draws out the lawyer's real obstacle. Loving our neighbour every bit ourselves is much easier said than done. And and so, as lawyers practise, he asks Jesus to ascertain his terms. "Who is my neighbor?"

Imagine yourself in this dialogue. Imagine what it'd be similar to exist the lawyer, hungry for life. What emerges?

The story of the skilful Samaritan doesn't answer the lawyer's question directly. Jesus draws us into an imaginative scenario where a wounded and vulnerable man is left on the side of the road to die. Religious experts detect the man and pass him by.

Not the Samaritan. In a remarkable twist, Jesus says this religious and ethnic outsider experiences 'splagchnizomai' - a churning inside - toward the wounded man. A verb derived from a Greek discussion for the bowels or inner organs, Splagchnizomai in the New Attestation refers metaphorically to deep compassion, empathy or mercy as Jesus preaches and practices it. Luke inserts the term hither in a move that links the fictional religious and ethnic outsider with Jesus Himself.

This is a model for how to read Scripture imaginatively. It creates space to aesthetically explore layers of meaning in the text, layers that pull heart and mind together, enabling the reader to come across, consider and experience the story and themselves in fresh perspective.

While easiest to do in narrative, imaginative readings of Scripture are possible across different genres: What happens, for example, if you read Paul'due south alphabetic character to Philemon from the perspective of the old slave Onesimus?

Imaginative readings also refine our moral reflection. It's non only that the Samaritan "feels bad" for the wounded and vulnerable, he aches internally, seeing the earlier traveller'southward plight. This gut-wrenching compassion compels the Samaritan to act. The Samaritan, a man outside the law of God, disadvantages himself for the sake of this nameless, faceless other. So comes the punchline, "Which of these 3, do you think, was a neighbour to the human being who cruel into the hands of the robbers?" Jesus said.

"What if nosotros read with our imagination and discovered ourselves drawn into a dynamic friendship with God? Imaginative reading would help more than of u.s. find the transformation we're looking for."

Reading this story imaginatively, from the inside, we experience its sting. Do nosotros experience splagchnizomai when nosotros expect out the window and see kids on the playground of the failing school beyond the street? Are we willing to disadvantage ourselves for them? What about the neighbour across the hall with a broken leg, the 1 fighting breast cancer or the mom heart-broken about her son?

Jesus' story answers the lawyer'southward question by reshaping the lawyer'southward and our definition of  neighbour. Neighbour is not defined geographically, ethnically or categorically, simply past the compassion and activity of the ane who sees others in need. Nosotros first practice hospitality and mercy, and by and then doing become neighbour to those around us.

What if all of our times in Scripture led us to these kinds of connections? What if nosotros read with our imagination and discovered ourselves drawn into a dynamic friendship with God? Imaginative reading would help more of us discover the transformation nosotros're looking for.

Jason Gaboury is the regional manager for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's undergraduate ministry in New York and New Bailiwick of jersey and the author of Wait with Me: Meeting God in Loneliness.