A twice-under missional reading of the Beatitudes, a live missional hermeneutics bibliography, and six things to remember before you hand in your essay
Welcome to my newsletter, ‘Bible, Mission, and More’, where I share what’s on my mind as I teach, research, and write on the Bible and mission, children-at-risk in the Bible and contemporary society, Psalms and Wisdom Literature, and a range of other topics. I teach at All Nations Christian College in the UK, though views are my own.
Each Friday I’ll share something I’ve read, something I’ve written or recorded, something on learning and teaching, and a quote to take into the weekend.
Something read – Rosemary Dewerse and Cathy Hine on a missional reading of the Beatitudes
In their 2020 article, ‘Reading from Worlds under the Text: Oceanic Women in the missio Dei,’ Rosemary Dewerse and Cathy Hine offer a missional reading of the Beatitudes from a ‘twice-under perspective’. They, rightly, observe the lack of diversity in the landmark 2016 volume Reading the Bible Missionally, in which all the contributors (myself included – see below) were men from North America or Western Europe.
As you’ll see from the missional hermeneutics bibliography I curate, there is much greater diversity in the field, which is something I discuss regularly in my classes at All Nations. Indeed, I think the growing diversity of published works in missional hermeneutics (and the recognition that there have always been diverse voices speaking and writing in this space) is perhaps the most needed and significant development in missional hermeneutics of recent years. Dewerse and Hine’s article is both a timely critique and an important contribution to reading the Bible from a missional perspective. As they note in their abstract:
‘The Beatitudes provide the frame for a spiralling discussion of the missio Dei as, to borrow from Letty M. Russell, “calculated inefficiency.” Stories of faithful Oceanic women interweave with those of God and biblical women, offering their complexities to challenge assumptions and simplicities.’
See also the quote for the week, below. You, or your institution, will need a subscription to Mission Studies to read the article but here is a link to the full abstract: Reading from Worlds under the Text: Oceanic Women in the missio Dei, Mission Studies 37 (2020), 29-51.
Something written – a live missional hermeneutics bibliography
Back in 2016 I worked with Mike Goheen on a bibliography of works related to missional hermeneutics or missional readings of Scripture. This was published in Mike’s edited volume Reading the Bible Missionally (Eerdmans). At the time we knew it would soon become out-of-date so the publisher gave permission to reproduce a web-based version that could be updated. It’s a really useful resource for students, researchers, and lecturers working on the Bible and mission. It has also been a way of adding ommissions and tracking developments in the field, not least the diversity of authors being published, as noted above.
Please let me know if there is anything missing so I can update it further!
You can find it here: missional hermeneutics bibliography
Learning and teaching – six things to remember before handing in your essay
Here’s a checklist of things to ask yourself before you submit an assignment. Obviously you should be keeping these in mind throughout the process of writing your essay and checking your institution’s particular requirements!
Have I answered the question? The question will have been worded very deliberately so your tutor is looking for something specific. Have you understood what they are asking and have you delivered on it?
Have I put into practice any other instructions and advice? As well as the question itself, tutors will often give further guidance on what they are looking for. For example, if they have said, ‘make sure you include some practical implications for mission in a specific context,’ be sure to write about a specific context and not ‘mission’ in general.
Have I edited and proof-read the essay? This can often get missed because of time pressure. However, good editing will help your essay flow and a good proof-read will pick up on avoidable minor errors that might make your points unclear, or nibble away at your marker’s confidence in your work.
Have I correctly quoted, cited, and referenced other authors? PLEASE make sure your referencing is done correctly. Your institution will have rules on plagiarism, which may not take ‘intent’ into account; i.e., your accidentally presenting someone else’s work as your own may be the result of sloppy note-taking but it may well still be breaking the rules. And remember, it is possible to plagiarise yourself, so be careful how you refer to any of your previous essays.
Have I formatted the essay in the required way? Does your institution have rules on things like fonts, spacing, a coversheet, and correct naming of the file?
Have I answered the question? So important it needed to be in the list twice!
Quote
‘The Beatitudes call us to participation in the mission of God through what Letty Russell has called “calculated inefficiency” (Russell 1981:36). Calculated inefficiency, demonstrated in the character of God and God’s story throughout Scripture, creates space where the excluded and the weak are possessors of the kingdom of God, where those who mourn are comforted, where the meek have an inheritance of immeasurable value, where those who pursue justice and righteousness know fulfilment, where the risk and vulnerability of mercy will be rewarded in kindness and generosity and hospitality, where the pure of heart pursuing God see him, where the peacemakers acting for reconciliation and transformation in the face of destructive brokenness enjoy the blessing of relationship in the family of God, where the persecuted who endure violence, hidden and explicit, are rewarded. They move us away from the logic of human equivalence to one of grace and inclusion, generosity and abundance that it at the heart of God’s self-revelation and mission.’ (p. 32 in Dewerse, R., & Hine, C. (2020). Reading from Worlds under the Text: Oceanic Women in the missio Dei. Mission Studies, 37(1), 29-51. https://doi.org/10.1163/15733831-12341695)
Thanks for joining the journey and see you next week,
Tim