Preparing for Disability Awareness Sunday: An educational exercise drawing on psychological perspectives for biblical hermeneutics

Abstract

Some of the Gospel passages proposed for Disability Awareness Sunday raise challenges as well as opportunities for preachers. This paper reports findings from an educational exercise, drawing on insights from the SIFT approach to biblical hermeneutics, in which 23 Anglican clergy studied Mark 2: 1-12 and Mark 10: 46-52 in groups structured according to their psychological type preferences: sensing or intuition, thinking or feeling. The data demonstrate how a richer interpretation of the passages emerges when the groups share their distinctive perspectives. Recommendations are offered for developing preaching workshops on this theme.

Reading the Lucan call of the first disciples differently: the voices of sensing and intuition

“…Mark 16: 1-8 and Matthew 28: 1-15(Francis & Jones, 2011); the cleansing of the Temple and the incident of the fig tree reported in Mark 11: 11-21(Francis, 2012a;Francis & ap Siôn, 2016b); the Johannine feeding narrative reported in John 6: 4-22(Francis, 2012b); the narrative of separating sheep from goats reported in Matthew 25: 31-46(Francis & Smith, 2012); the birth narratives reported in Matthew 2: 13-20 and Luke 2: 8-16(Francis & Smith, 2013); two narratives concerning John the Baptist reported in Mark 1: 2-8 and Luke 3: 2b-20(Francis, 2013;Francis & Smith, 2014); the Johannine feeding narrative reported in John 6: 5-15(Francis & Jones, 2014); two passages from Mark exploring different aspects of discipleship reported in Mark 6: 7-14 and Mark 6: 33-41(Francis & Jones, 2015a); the foot washing account reported in John 13: 2b-15(Francis, 2015b); two healing narratives reported in Mark 2: 1-12 and Mark 10: 46-52(Francis & Jones, 2015b); the narrative of blind…”

Partnerships From the Pews: Promoting Interagency Collaboration With Religious Organizations

“…Practitioners can use transition assessments to document students’ strengths, interests, and preferences (IDEA, 2004) to drive instruction and maintain a focus on students’ postschool goals. When describing student strengths, interests, and preferences, practitioners should use nontechnical language when describing transition services and partnerships because faith community leaders may not know special education technical jargon or be familiar with the services interagency collaboration partners typically offer (Carter et al, 2016; Francis & Jones, 2015).…”

“…A significant barrier to partnership is clergy and leaders do not receive training often on strategies designed to promote belonging for individuals with disabilities (Francis & Jones, 2015). Practitioners should consider offering cross-agency professional development (Holzberg et al, 2018) and supporting partners with understanding disability and transition services (e.g., development sessions to the congregation on disability awareness, effective practices for individuals with disabilities; Vogel et al, 2006).…”

Reading the Beatitudes (Mt 5:1–10) through the lenses of introverted intuition and introverted sensing: Perceiving text differently

“…The theory is that such groups (constituted on the basis of psychological type preference) lead to greater clarity and greater distinctiveness of the typeassociated readings of text. The following passages from the gospels have been explored in this way: the feeding of the 5000 reported in Mark 6:34-44 (Francis 2010); the resurrection narratives reported in Mark 16:1-8 and Matthew 28:1-15 (Francis & Jones 2011); the cleansing of the Temple and the incident of the fig tree reported in Mark 11:11-21 (Francis 2012a;Francis & ap Siôn 2016b); the Johannine feeding narratives reported in John 6:4-22 (Francis 2012b) and John 6:5-15 (Francis & Jones 2014); the narrative of separating sheep from goats reported in Matthew 25:31-46 (Francis & Smith 2012); the birth narratives reported in Matthew 2:13-20 and Luke 2:8-16 (Francis & Smith 2013); two narratives concerning John the Baptist reported in Mark 1:2-8 and Luke 3:2b-20 (Francis 2013;Francis & Smith 2014); two passages exploring different aspects of discipleship reported in Mark 6:7-14 and 6:33-41 (Francis & Jones 2015a); the foot washing account reported in John 13:2b-15 (Francis 2015); two healing narratives reported in Mark 2:1-12 and 10:46-52 (Francis & Jones 2015b); the narrative of blind Bartimaeus reported in Mark 10:46-52 (Smith & Francis 2016); the Road to Emmaus narrative reported in Luke 24:13-35 (Francis & ap Siôn 2016a;; the Lucan call of the first disciples reported in Luke 5:1-7…”