THE CONTEXT OF BIBLICAL TEXTS:
According to Boshoff, Scheffler and Spangenberg (2006), when the Bible is read in its original context, the true nature or intention of the Bible can be uncovered. The Bible is not just one book, but it comprises of many books that originated and were edited over a long period of time. Thus, the “date of origin of a specific book” and the “place of origin” provide us with important information, because every biblical book has a specific message for a specific place in a specific historical period, and therefore, knowing the author of the book, also provides key evidence, as to what the intention and original message of that book was, for that specific audience. Hence, the context of the book is necessary. There are three aspects of the context of the Old Testament that have to be investigated to provide a holistic understanding of those times. (1) The broader context in which the Ancient Israelites functioned, the world of ancient Near East, has to be understood, (2) as well as, the specific periods in history in which each book was written, including the political, national, international, social and economic factors operating in those periods, and (3) finally, the immediate context of each book has to be taken into account.
According to Worden (1984) the literary context can help us to understand the specific meaning of the book or verse. He highlights that every sentence has to be understood in terms of the original language, thus if one doesn’t know the original language, either the Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek, then different translations of the Bible can be read alongside each other to provide a better understanding of the original intention of the message. He cautions that using a sentence alone,...
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...and Truth: A Creative Proposal for a Postmodern Age. Leicester: Apollos.
Hughes, S. 2003. Christ Empowered Living: Finding stability in an unstable world. Surrey: CWR publishing.
Johnson, E.L. 2011. The Three Faces of Integration. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 30 (4): 339-355.
Knight, D.A. 1982. Old Testament Ethics. Christian Century, 20 January: 55.
Sire, J.W. 2004. The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog. 4th edition. Downers Grove: InterVasity Press.
Taylor, G. 1995. Hermeneutics, How to study the Bible: A practical approach to understanding scripture. Available at: www.centervilleroad.com/downloads/class-books/Hermeneutics.pdf. [Accessed 5 July 2014].
The Holy Bible, New International Version. 2001. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Worden, R.D. 1984. Taking the Bible on Its Own Terms. Christian Century, 12-19 September: 832.
Walvoord, John F., Roy B. Zuck and Dallas Theological Seminary. The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985.
It is the reader and his or her interpretive community who attempts to impose a unified reading on a given text. Such readers may, and probably will, claim that the unity they find is in the text, but this claim is only a mask for the creative process actually going on. Even the most carefully designed text can not be unified; only the reader's attempted taming of it. Therefore, an attempt to use seams and shifts in the biblical text to discover its textual precursors is based on a fundamentally faulty assumption that one might recover a stage of the text that lacked such fractures (Carr 23-4).
The Bible: The Old Testament. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Ed. Sarah Lawall et al. Vol 1. 7th ed. New York: Norton, 1999. 47-97.
David Entwistle’s (2010) is the author of the Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity. In the book Entwistle embarks on a journey to explore Psychology and Christianity. As the title suggests several approaches that are used to define the relationship of Phycology and Christianity. In the book Entwistle begins to takes us on shows that psychology and Christianity go in two different directions and meet up someplace in the middle. This allows them to provide different approaches to understanding and studying the human behavior. Entwistle, (2010) took a new approach that has rarely been used in other books that discussed the topic of integration. Entwistle, (2010) began to talk about the relationship of psychology and Christianity
This paper will be reviewing the book “Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity: an introduction to worldview issues, philosophical foundations and models of integration, by David N. Entwistle. As the title states, this book discusses how to integrate psychology and theology. It also dives into to why it is so important to be able to integrate the two. Entwistle explains that just because the two are different does not mean they should be separated and that we have to use both our worldviews. “Weaving together perspectives from psychology and Christian theology can help us understand and appreciate humanity more fully than we could either perspective alone.” (p.3)
In David deSilva book, Honor, Patronage, Kinship, and Purity: Unlocking New Testament Culture deSilva states that context is extremely important as well as understanding the culture, without these elements one cannot properly understand the interpretation of Scripture. David deSilva gives an enlightening contextual study of first century Mediterranean culture. deSilva believes that all culture delivers the framework for all communication, and the New Testament writings is no different in how the culture provides the framework for communication.
Hauer, Christian E. and William A. Young. An Introduction To The Bible: A Journey Into Three Worlds.
Estep, J. R. & Kim, J. H. (2010). Christian formaton: Integrating theology and human development. Nashville, TN. B&H Publishing Group.
Suchoki, Marjorie Hewitt. God, Christ, Church: A Practical Guide to Process Theology. New York: 1999.
New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1997. Osborne, Grant R. Revelation. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002.
6. Stafford, Tim and Yancey, Philips. The Student Bible, New International Version. Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1996.
“Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity” (2010) is about the purposeful integration of psychology and Christianity. Entwistle, discusses the integration of scripture and nature, holding to historic orthodox Christianity that “Scripture and the natural world have their origins in God’s creativity and revelation” (Entwistle, 2010, p. 136). Theology clarifies the Word of God (Bible), and Psychology corresponds with the works of God. A working definition of integration is offered,
Fisher, Mary Pat (2002). Living Religions, Fifth Edition Prentice-Hall, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Maddix, M. A., & Thompson, R. P. (2012). Scripture as formation: the role of Scripture in Christian Formation. Christian Education Journal, S79-S93.
...ical Hermeneutics: A treatise on interpretation of the old and new testaments. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zonderzan, 17.