Doing Something Creative

In an article titled, "Exegesis" in the Concise Encyclopedia of Preaching, Richard B. Hays writes,

The principal effect of the exegetical process is to stimulate the imagination. Sustained attention to the text leads the reader into a richly visualized account of the world of the text, 'The strange new world of the Bible,' as Karl Barth called it. Encountering a world of different values, assumptions, and possibilities, the preacher is encouraged to envision God’s dealing with humankind in new and surprising ways. Exegesis expands, rather than narrows, the preacher’s homiletical horizons (eds. William H. Willimon and Richard Lischer, [Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1995] 122).

This unit explores some outlets for an imagination stimulated by aspects of the exegetical process. I was inspired to include it in part by Hays's remarks about the imagination and in part by a conviction that exegesis can be disciplined and fun at the same time.

What's with the Title of this Unit?

By calling a single unit, "Doing Something Creative," I do not intend to say that creativity is or should be bracketed out of anyone's practice of other exegetical skills that are part of Into the New Testament. There are creative and imaginative ways to approach any of these skills as well as less creative and imaginative ways to execute them.

"Exegesis may be done mechanically, or it may be done with the readers' equivalent of musicianship."

Musicians know that two people can play all the same notes of the same composition and yet have performed very different pieces. Exegesis may be done mechanically, or it may be done with the readers' equivalent of musicianship. As I offer some ideas here for creative explorations of texts, I hope to encourage readers to practice each of the other exegetical skills mindful of how that practice may be stimulating the imagination.

Desired Results

Using categories from Understanding by Design, I have these goals for this unit:

Enduring Understandings

1. Exegesis is both work and play.
2. A paraphrase is never cut out of whole cloth. Instead, it depends on a text for both its shape and its content.
3. Letter-writing, drawing, dramatizing and other creative interactions with a text can offer insight into what the text means.

Essential Questions

1. Is it possible to be too imaginative when reading the New Testament?
2. How would I tell this part of the New Testament to someone who knew nothing of the Bible? How would I tell it to a child?
3. What am I missing? What does my work omit from, add to, or misrepresent about the text?

Key Knowledge

Key Skills

Resource Pages

Doing Something Creative | This is the introductory page you are reading now.

Writing a Paraphrase | Here you study a text closely enough to put it in a new vernacular.

Praying a Text | This page introduces a way of reading meditatively so that a biblical text provides language for prayer.

Seeing a Text | What could you do to visualize what a text is about? This page introduces ideas for seeing the text, from imaginary TV news reports to creating a poster that argues a thesis about the text.

Next: Writing a Paraphrase