The Hermeneutics Quiz by Scot McKnight in LEADERSHIP JOURNAL

Recently in one of our Bible Dept meetings each of us took a fascinating little quiz that was created by Scot McKnight, a professor of religious studies at North Park University in Chicago and the author of the upcoming book, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible (Zondervan, 2008)

This quiz is designed to surface the decisions we make, perhaps without thinking about them, and about how we both read our Bible and don't read our Bible. Some will want to quibble with distinctions or agree with more than one answer. No test like this can reveal all the nuances needed, but broad answers are enough to raise many of the key issues.

The idea is to look at 20 questions and on a scale of 1-5, mark the answer that best fits your approach to reading the Bible. Your score will reveal where you land on our hermeneutical scale. The opportunity for conversation is then how we discern when to be a "1," when to be a "3," and when to be a "5."

Broadly speaking, McKnight then has created three groups based on one's score on the actual quiz. Here's a description of the 3 groups:

First, the conservative hermeneutic group scores 52 or lower. The strength of this view is its emphasis on the authority, ongoing and normative authority, of all of Scripture. It tends to operate with the line many of us learned in Sunday school: "If the Bible says it, that settles it." Such persons let the Bible challenge them with full force. Literal readings lead to rather literal applications. Most of the time.

The moderate hermeneutic might be seen as the voice of reason and open-mindedness. Moderates generally score between 53 to 65. Many are conservative on some issues and progressive on others. Moderates have a flexible hermeneutic that gives them the freedom to pick and choose on which issues they will be progressive or conservative.

Those who score 66 or more can be seen as leaning toward the progressive side, but the difference between at 66 and 92 is dramatic. Still, the progressive tends to see the Bible as historically shaped and culturally conditioned, and yet most still consider it the Word of God for today. Following a progressive hermeneutic, for the Word to speak in our day, one must interpret what the Bible said in its day and discern its pattern for revelation in order to apply it to our world.

It is clearly not a perfect instrument, but one that we found that gave us a great chance to talk about how we interpret Scripture, how to teach students to interpret Scripture, and the great need to read the Bible with great sincerity and concern as we look to base our lives around its truth...

If you want, you can now take the quiz online and feel free to post the score you got on the blog...here's the link:

http://buildingchurchleaders.com/assessments/individuals/hermeneuticsquiz.html