I was reading a great book on small groups by Orlando Saer (Iron Sharpens Iron) and he suggests that talking about the "implication" of a passage is a more helpful term than "application".
Except it's pretty easy to see how it can go awry: 'the implication' vs 'an application' - because implication is, for want of a better term, logically tighter (ie it follows more necessarily), it lends itself to the Bible becoming a one-to-one mapping of theology to implication.
I like application because it is only ever an application - because there are many more from the same passage.
Of course, that just might reflect how I define the two words...
We have been using a modified Swedish method with the students in Argentina... we have the light bulb for what grabs your attention, a question mark for questions, then a mountain for the main idea of the passage, and then an arrow for the application.
But I have tried to encourage the students to think of the arrow as 'response' rather than application. What is my response to this passage- praise, gratitude, a change in attitude, a change in behaviour. Application lends to easily to moralism for my liking.
Only if your Bible doesn't include Eph 2:10.
ReplyDeleteOr if you think application can only refer to actions.
I was reading a great book on small groups by Orlando Saer (Iron Sharpens Iron) and he suggests that talking about the "implication" of a passage is a more helpful term than "application".
ReplyDeleteI like that.
DeleteExcept it's pretty easy to see how it can go awry: 'the implication' vs 'an application' - because implication is, for want of a better term, logically tighter (ie it follows more necessarily), it lends itself to the Bible becoming a one-to-one mapping of theology to implication.
DeleteI like application because it is only ever an application - because there are many more from the same passage.
Of course, that just might reflect how I define the two words...
We have been using a modified Swedish method with the students in Argentina...
ReplyDeletewe have the light bulb for what grabs your attention, a question mark for questions, then a mountain for the main idea of the passage, and then an arrow for the application.
But I have tried to encourage the students to think of the arrow as 'response' rather than application. What is my response to this passage- praise, gratitude, a change in attitude, a change in behaviour. Application lends to easily to moralism for my liking.