Inductive Bible Study
The term “inductive” is used in both a broader and narrower sense. In the broader sense, it involves a commitment to move from the evidence from the text and the history that bounds the text to conclusions regarding the meaning of the text . In this regard, “inductive” is practically synonymous with “evidential,” over against “deductive,” which would be presuppositional. This broader sense of “inductive” implies an emphasis on observation as the starting point of the exegetical process.
And indeed, when one remembers the basic hermeneutical principle that, everything being equal, generally evidence from (literary) context is the most significant determination of meaning, one will recognize that this broader sense of “inductive” implies an emphasis upon careful observation of the text itself and its literary context as the starting point in the hermeneutical process.
According to this understanding, it is important for observations of the text in its literary context to generate questions, the answering of which constitutes interpretation. This broader sense of “inductive” involves also the attempt to help students understand and responsibly process the critical interaction between their pre-understandings (including theological creeds and commitments) and the witness of the biblical text.
In the more narrow sense, “inductive biblical study” pertains to a movement in the history of biblical hermeneutics which traces its beginnings to the work of William Rainey Harper of Yale and the University of Chicago and to the work of his associate Wilbert Webster White, the founder of The Biblical Seminary in New York. But it has enjoyed widespread dissemination, having been employed over the years in such institutions as Princeton Theological Seminary, Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, Asbury Theological Seminary, Fuller Theological Seminary, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries, Columbia Theological Seminary, Regent University, Dallas Theological Seminary, Wesley Biblical Seminary, Eastern Mennonite Seminary, Azuza Pacific University, Union Biblical Seminary [India], and Seminário Presbiteriano Renovado do Brasil Centra [Brazil], to name only a few). It has influenced the work of scholars of global distinction such as James Luther Mays, Patrick D. Miller, and Brevard S. Childs as well as scholars who have made a mark on Christian culture in a popular way, such as Eugene Peterson.
This more narrow sense of “induction” involves the following features:
- An emphasis upon the meaning of the final form of the text;
- An emphasis upon the form of the text, with attention to the ways students identify literary structure and use such structure to inform their understanding of the text;
- An emphasis upon the biblical book as the (generally) basic literary unit;
- An emphasis upon students developing their own skills in the hermeneutical approach to the text through consistent, first-hand study of the text;
- A holistic and integrated approach that seeks to be synthetic in that it incorporates within its model every legitimate method in the study of the text;
- A specific sequential process that is presented to students as a working hypothesis, given to them for their consideration with the explicit invitation to evaluate it critically;
- An emphasis upon students’ own hands-on learning.