The Arts, Midrash, and Biblical Teaching

Abstract

Biblical texts have been handed on to us through a long history of interpretation. Awareness of this rich but complex process is one of the goals of biblical teaching. Since the earliest centuries of the church there has been a parallel history of artistic interaction with the biblical text. These artistic treatments of biblical subjects have had a great cultural impact and have deeply influenced public perceptions and understandings of the Bible. Unfortunately, seldom does this history of artistic interpretation become a part of Bible courses. In this paper, I reflect on learnings from a serious effort to take artistic resources and methodologies into account in teaching Hebrew Bible in a theological school. My most successful efforts have employed the ancient Jewish interpretive method of midrash. Use of midrash opens new, imaginative possibilities that can enliven and extend our usual exegesis of texts. More specifically, midrash provides the ideal category for understanding artistic interactions with biblical texts. Through midrash students can understand artists to be both profound respecters of the power and integrity of biblical texts, while at the same time extending and entering into imaginative encounter with those texts.

A rich palette of Bible use: A theoretical and empirical contribution from the context of Protestant Christian secondary schools in the Netherlands

“…Based on a study of three projects involving Grade 10 students, in which they provided an arts‐based commentary on Numbers 12, Reingold (2015) concludes that learning through the arts gives students the opportunity to take on the role of a biblical commentator, focusing not only on original interpretations of the text but also on developing new, creative connections with the text. In line with this finding, Birch (2005) had earlier pleaded for a more imaginative, artistic approach to—or interpretation of—the Bible: “Artistic treatments of biblical texts and stories can demonstrate the importance of social contexts on biblical interpretation. This is a major interest in biblical teaching today.…”

A rich palette of Bible use: A theoretical and empirical contribution from the context of Protestant Christian primary schools in the Netherlands

“…Given the educational potential of the Bible and particular Biblical texts, teachers are faced with a variety of choices regarding designing learning environments in which the Bible plays a role and that can guide the teaching–learning processes in these learning environments. These choices can go, for example, in the direction of learning through arts (see Birch, 2005; Reingold, 2015), giving attention to the psychodynamic aspects of Biblical texts (see Schimmel, 1997, pp. 24–37) or the proclamation dimension of a text (see Ipgrave, 2013, pp.…”

Narrative theology in Religious Education

“…Turner's paintings show biblical scenes in a quirky, contemporary style that is both engaging and thought-provoking. Such a use of art has been shown to bring the concept of interpretation to life for pupils and, in so doing, to demonstrate that written texts, too, might function in this way (De Gruchy 2001;Engler and Naested 2002;Bruce Birch 2005). Our pedagogy is not tied exclusively to visual images, however, but may also be approached by means of alternative stimuli such as music, theatre, film or contemporary narratives that reimagine the biblical texts.…”