Full Title
An Evaluation of a Hermeneutics Course to Help Asian Seminarians Identify the Theological Thrust of a Biblical Narrative Passage for Expository Preaching
Author
Patrick Chi Leung Wong D.Min.
Abstract
Hermeneutics of biblical narratives for preaching has its unique challenge for preachers and seminary students. Biblical narratives are stories often without explicit statements of teaching. A review of literature shows that there are deficiencies in various traditional approaches in identifying the author-intended thrust of a biblical narrative such as looking for good or bad models, arbitrarily creating principles for applications, and presuming linkage to redemptive-history. On the other hand, a literary approach and the notion of authorial doing with saying in linguistics are promising to help the interpreters identify the author-intended pericopal theology for preaching.
It was hypothesized that by incorporating elements from the literary approach and notion of authorial doing in a hermeneutics course, the Asian seminary students might better identify the pericopal theology of a biblical narrative for preaching. The effectiveness of this approach was assessed in this research which was about program development and evaluation. Specifically, major changes were made to an existing basic hermeneutics course so that the students were introduced to key concepts and elements in the literary approach and notion of authorial doing with saying.
An instrument was developed to collect both quantitative and qualitative data to assess the effectiveness of the final modified course. The instrument includes a pre-test and a post-test to generate quantitative data, and an open-ended question to gather qualitative data. The instrument was administered to a group of participating Asian seminarians. The data collected was analyzed to validate the hypotheses of the research project. The data verified all three hypotheses and affirmed that attending this course is associated with higher ability and confidence of the students in identifying the theological thrust of a biblical narrative for preaching. The dissertation suggests that such training approach may prove beneficial to seminary students in preaching in other contexts.
It was hypothesized that by incorporating elements from the literary approach and notion of authorial doing in a hermeneutics course, the Asian seminary students might better identify the pericopal theology of a biblical narrative for preaching. The effectiveness of this approach was assessed in this research which was about program development and evaluation. Specifically, major changes were made to an existing basic hermeneutics course so that the students were introduced to key concepts and elements in the literary approach and notion of authorial doing with saying.
An instrument was developed to collect both quantitative and qualitative data to assess the effectiveness of the final modified course. The instrument includes a pre-test and a post-test to generate quantitative data, and an open-ended question to gather qualitative data. The instrument was administered to a group of participating Asian seminarians. The data collected was analyzed to validate the hypotheses of the research project. The data verified all three hypotheses and affirmed that attending this course is associated with higher ability and confidence of the students in identifying the theological thrust of a biblical narrative for preaching. The dissertation suggests that such training approach may prove beneficial to seminary students in preaching in other contexts.
Subjects
Degree Granting Institution
Country
United States
Degree Granted
Doctor of Ministry
Type of Work
Dissertation
Advisor
Abraham Kuruvilla Ph.D.
Johann Y. H. Lai D.Min.
Language
English
Date
2021
Number of Pages
137
Copyright Statement
Copyright is held by author. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.