What is "Bible Study"? How can anything without critical analysis be a study?

The few times I've been around "Bible study" it went something like this:





Read the text.





Explain away almost every fact in the text by saying that it doesn't really mean what it would appear to mean. This might involved introducing new facts of dubious origin, or inrtroducing motives into the characters lives for which there seems to be no justification, or perhaps making terrible deeds seem somehow acceptable by explaining that those were widely accepted back in the day. By the time this process ends the facts that have been "extracted" have very little relationship to the text itself.





Now that the facts have all been switched around begins the interpretation phase. Now we take the already modified "facts" and stretch things a bit further as we look for the hidden message in the story.





By teh time we're done we can start with a story about how somebody did something "sinful" so God killed a whole gob of people and then teh morale of the story is that God loves us.





It is an amazing thing to behold ... people talking nonsense and all the time nodding their heads knowingly as if it is very profound.

What is "Bible Study"? How can anything without critical analysis be a study?
Most of the study that occurs on this planet does not require critical analysis. Most of it is taken on faith. This includes religious AND secular studies.





Don't believe it? Ask your elementary aged kids if they ever critically think about the concepts they are taught in school. Or are they simply accepting them as truths? I think you'll find that faith is a lot more prevalent in our lives than you'd like to admit....





And even given this truth, how can you assume that those who study the Bible do not compare it to other texts, scholarly works, historical documents, etc? Most people who are well versed in the Bible have read extensively from those other types of sources. I have.
Reply:great question. Not christian i just liked the question





Bible study is a catch phrase like being on fire for Jesus( that one gets me a laugh) or born agian christian.
Reply:Bible study is a place where you go to be told what you think. Does that sound like a place where critical analysis would be practiced.





Love and blessings Don
Reply:Can you critically analyze art? No? Guess you cant study that as well.





Art critically analyzed? REALLY? I guess that is why there is such universal agreement among the 'critics'.
Reply:to study the Bible IS to critically analyse it
Reply:Bible study is when people come together, and study the bible, ask questions, get answers, build friendships, have accountability partners, and learn about their own faith. In my bible study group I always ask questions if I don't understand something, or I go research it later.
Reply:The Bible has been critically analized more than any other


book in the world.
Reply:Go to Bible Study and find out. Might even do you some good.
Reply:How do you criticize something without studying it? You can't make an analysis without studying it first.
Reply:The Bible has undergone fatal analysis and still proven to be truth.