1. Cimabue Santa Trinita Madonna Giotto Ognisanti Madonna Duccio Ruccelai Madonna

3. David White
(student)

5. A ball

6. A bag

7. A purse

8. A cat

9. Unrelated
signs…

10. Meaning
depends
how they
are
combined

11. What
does she
make of
it?

12. Creative imitation simplifies
in order to reveal

13. Look at text:
 Symbols inspire thought
 Creative metaphor refigures reality
 Relational: I say it, you interpret it
 Surplus of meaning
 Can’t be translated into descriptive
language

14.  Narrative configures reality
 the plot asserts cause
 history tells us why things are as
they are
 fiction tells us how things might be
 Understanding lies between text and
reader

15.  Reading in the hermeneutic circle for
fuller understanding
1. naive reading
2. explanation –internal coherence
3. suspicion – does it mean what it
seems?
4. understanding – seeing the world
it projects
5. appropriation – buying into that
world
 What it means depends (partly)
on who reads

16. Thank you.
I think I
understand.

17.  Challenge
 set aside belief-systems
and read as educator
 Rich fund of  Take distance:
 stories  hear it afresh
 metaphors  let it speak
 symbols  Learn
told over centuries in encounter between
world of text and
our world
 interfaces between
fields of knowledge are
loci of creativity

18.  Teachers:
 128 references to
 Jesus
teachers and teaching
43 references to  Paul
learning mediated by text
 Teaching is relational  the text itself is
and student-centred teaching
Expect principles rather than technical solutions

19.  Uses many forms and
genres
 metaphors
 stories (parables)  Jesus and Paul
 principles pull crowds
 exhortation  Different from
 poetry traditional teacher
 action Tyrranus?
 letters
 Relational and
interactive

20. The light shines in the darkness
but the darkness has not overcome it

21.  What might it mean
 Jesus tells stories that to someone in
invite the listener to distance learning?
find meaning  efforts are scattered
(parables) widely
 “A sower went out to  much is wasted
sow...”  still yield huge
 What does it mean returns
to you?  A story of
encouragement...

22.  Identify with them
 “puts his tent in their camp”
 Homes
 Gatherings
 Targets the socially excluded
 Goes to “the other side”...

23.  Double story
 crossing the lake in a storm; and
 encounter with Gadarene man with demons
 Story told three times
(by Matthew, Mark and Luke)
 Apart from words of Jesus, every word is different
 But same steps
 Any story can be told in many ways

24. The storm on the lake
 Facing trouble and danger to do the job
 Echoes of Jonah, who ran away; and
 Julius Caesar, who turned back
 Asks a question:
 Not “How did he do this?” But
 “Who is this?”

25. At the other side...
 Man with demons prefers the dead to the
living
 world is upside-down
 distinguish man from demons
 demons in one man v demons in crowd
 political subtext
 Man pleased to have world put right-way up
 Townspeople preferred things as they were

26.  Tension maintained between
 building on what we have
“not to abolish, but to fulfil”
so work in stages; and
 turning the world upside down
“puts down the mighty... and exalts the humble”
breaking in
 A method, not an answer

27.  Travelled to lay
foundations
 Lectured and debated
 could be long-winded  Built an organisation
 sometimes hard to  Placed key leaders and
understand managers
 could be lyrical  Sent colleagues to run
 Wrote letters tutorials
 his metaphors cross
cultural barriers
 adapts what is familiar

28.  Theology is about relationships
 Where we are in the order of things
 How to relate to others
 Learned in community
 Needs someone to
exhort, guide, encourage, accompany
παρὰκλητὸς
parakletos

29.  Traditional Jewish festival
celebrates gifts to Israel
 Pentecost in New Testament
turns towards others
 And provides us with...

30. ὑμῖν τοῖς μακρὰν καὶ τοῖς ἐγγύς
To those far off
and
to those who are near

31. Cimabue Santa Trinita Madonna Giotto Ognisanti Madonna Duccio Ruccelai Madonna