Congregational Hermeneutics ─ How Do We Read?

Despite many churches claiming that the Bible is highly significant for their doctrine and practice, questions about how we read the Bible are rarely made explicit. Based on ethnographic research in English churches, Congregational Hermeneutics explores this dissonance and moves beyond descriptions to propose ways of enriching hermeneutical practices in congregations. Characterised as hermeneutical apprenticeship, this is not just a matter of learning certain skills, but of cultivating hermeneutical virtues such as faithfulness, community, humility, confidence and courage. These virtues are given substance through looking at four broad themes that emerge from the analysis of congregational hermeneutics - tradition, practices, epistemology and mediation. Concluding with what hermeneutical apprenticeship might look like in practice, this book is constructively theological about what churches actually do with the Bible, and will be of interest to scholars, students and practitioners.

Andrew P. Rogers is Principal Lecturer in Practical Theology at the University of Roehampton where he runs an ecumenical degree programme for students engaged in Christian ministry from across the greater London area. Within the local church, he is involved in preaching and leading small group Bible studies, and has also worked with the British and Foreign Bible Society on a project to enrich the use of the Bible within UK congregations. He is vice-chair of the British and Irish Association of Practical Theology (BIAPT) and co-convenes the Bible and Practical Theology group. Andrew is also the author of Being Built Together (2013), a study of new black majority churches in a London borough, and the lead author of h+ Making Good Sense of the Bible (2011).