Part 1 — Finding Your Hermeneutic Stance

Before we can read scripture together, it helps to know how we each come to it. 

A hermeneutic stance is simply the lens you bring — your experiences, your tradition, your questions, your doubts. In these first two sessions we will explore what shapes the way each of us reads and interprets the Bible, as a church and as an individual, and why that matters for how we understand it together.

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Part 2 — The Three Worlds of the Text

Every biblical text exists in three worlds at once, and learning to move between them opens up a rich way to interpret.

The world behind the text is the world that produced it: the authors, their communities, the political and cultural pressures they were living under, and what they were trying to communicate and to whom.

The world in the text is the created world of the text itself: this refers to the created text itself, including its words, characters, chronology, logic, and narrative.

The world in front of the text is our world, where we stand as readers, what we bring to the page, and how meaning gets made in the encounter between an ancient text and a living community.

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Part 3 — Theological Themes

In these final sessions we bring the tools we have built to three themes that run through scripture and speak directly into our lives and our world today.

What does the Bible say about our responsibility to care for creation? 

How does scripture challenge and resist the power of empire: then and now? 

And what does radical hospitality actually look like when we look at scripture?

Led by Katherine DeSilva, Ministry Intern at West Gloucester Trinitarian Congregational Church and Member in Discernment in the United Church of Christ.

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This is a tentative schedule and may shift as the summer unfolds.

All sessions meet Wednesday evenings at 6:00 pm via Google Meet and run approximately 40 to 50 minutes.

In-person meetups are optional and open to anyone who wants to gather face to face.