Empowering students as sacred text scholars: three ways to support pupils’ reason as theologians

The move to disciplinarity in religious education is exciting. Helping pupils learn how to learn about, and reflectively engage with, religious and non-religious worldviews is crucial; through knowing and using appropriate tools, methods and questions they can more effectively make sense of and navigate future encounters with religion and belief both within the classroom and outside it.

One key discipline which helps pupils make sense of the diverse religion and belief landscape of which they are participants is theology. Theology, as contextualised for a school setting, is the study of beliefs. For me, theology is not a direct arrow to an answer, but a conversation. For instance, going beyond simple and often misleading notions of ‘this text/teaching/concept means X’, pupils can consider a range of questions, methods and tools to help them richly consider why different people hold the beliefs they do. I like the idea of bringing pupils into the scholarly conversations within theology. They are commentators of and contributors to these vibrant discussions – not merely observers.

Many theologians are interested in what happens when readers encounter sacred texts (an area called hermeneutics – a fancy word for interpretation).

• How do different people engage with them?
• What do different people think they mean?
• And why do different people interpret them differently?

This is an area with lots of fascinating questions – particularly as there are wide-ranging views as to how texts could, should and should not be read. Helping pupils understand and consider some of the questions that theologians might ask of texts and readers supports them in understanding how the same text can be interpreted differently by different people and the implications of this.

Below are three ways to support pupils to reason as theologians when engaging with sacred texts. I wonder which of these you might try out this term?

Explore the context(s). Stories/texts emerge from particular places and times.

• Who told/wrote this story?
• Where?
• When?
• Why?
• Who for?
• What response were they hoping from listeners/readers?

Out of these, which ones can we ever truly know – and does this matter? Exploring different ideas, where possible, helps students recognise that discussions around context are continuing and shifting fields of understanding. Based on the ideas offered, what do pupils currently think?

Focus on people. Just as considering the (hypothetical) first reception of a story/text is useful, so is exploring how different people – from different times and contexts – engage/have engaged with a text. I particularly like using artwork here. For instance, here are three different artists’ responses to the Parable of the Prodigal Son:

• Dinah Kendall Roe (2005): https://tinyurl.com/438n6wsu
• Aaron Douglas (c. 1927): https://tinyurl.com/nu4uypar
• Rembrandt (c. 1669): https://tinyurl.com/mr32muh3

Invite pupils to compare these artworks and then pose the following questions to help students consider the role positionality can play in interpretation:

• Why do you think the artist painted it? What meaning(s) and response(s) do you think the artist was trying to convey/provoke?
• How do you think the artist’s context and worldview has shaped their artwork? (AI can usefully bring some background information here)
• Which artwork do you think most reflects your view of what this text is about?
• If you were to represent this biblical text, what might you depict? Why? How might this idea be shaped by your worldview? Why might someone take a different view?

Additionally, if possible, invite actual people from inside or outside the school to share their thoughts on a text. What has shaped their view? Have they always thought this?

Power and parameters. Many theologians raise questions about power and parameters. Why not explore the following as a class?

• Many texts are preceded by titles – the Parable of the Prodigal Son is a case it point. Yet, these titles vary in different parts of the world. To what extent do particular titles influence what readers takeaway from the text? Who decides on these titles? What could other titles be? Does this reflect our biases?
• Can texts be interpreted however we want, or are some interpretations inaccurate, inappropriate, or even irresponsible? Who gets to decide this, and on what grounds? Anthony Thiselton’s responsible hermeneutics is great for ideas on the limits of interpretation here.