I am teaching Christ-centered Interpretation: Reading the Whole Bible with Jesus for for the third time in our church’s short history. I never weary of this course. It sharpens my interpretive skills, sweetens communion with God, and strengthens my confidence in the power and relevance of God’s Word for everyday life.

We began the course by thinking about Why we Should Read Well, Obstacles to Reading Well, and a Christ-centered, Trinitarian Approach to reading the Bible well. We’re recording the audio, so that should be up at the City Life Church podcast, in case you’re interested. A few stand out quotes:

People read for three reasons: entertainment, information, and understanding. Most people never reach understanding. – Mortimer Adler

“Intellectual honesty consists not in enforcing an impossible neutrality, but in recognizing that neutrality is not possible.” – J. I. Packer

If Jesus isn’t biased about Jesus being the ultimate point of the text, then he’s not Jesus.

Much of our action is not “pushed” by ideas or conclusions; rather, it grows out of our character and is in a sense “pulled” out of us by our attraction to a telos. If we…are going to be “prime citizens” of the kingdom of God who act in the world as agents of renewal and redemptive culture-making, then it is not enough to equip our intellects to merely think rightly about the world. We also need to recruit our imaginations.

– James K. A. Smith, Imagining the Kingdom