Definition vs. Description

As I attempt to help students learn to read the Bible, one of the confusing elements that I encounter is the tendency for students to look to have definitions that rule out optional understandings rather than descriptions that provide boundaries for understanding. The cultural approach to learning experienced by our nation's young people rules out multiple answers, tests are given with a "correct" answer, their responses are geared toward meeting the teacher's expected answer, and patterns or styles are limited to those anticipated by the teacher. The teacher's response, "that wasn't the answer I was looking for" or the child's response of "Jesus" to the Sunday School question "what is brown, furry, with a long tail and eats nuts?" indicate the attempt to conform manners of thinking.

This enters the theological world when we seek to "define" God so that there are no optional ways of understanding (as if we as finite humans could fully understand an infinite deity!) lead to the rejection of people based on their perspectives and definitions. Descriptions of God as they are given by people often tell us as much about the person as it does about their deity. Yet, when we read the Bible, do we read it as a "definition" or as a "description". Does our prose based society create an inability to read and understand poetry?

This becomes evident in 1 John. The various statements and questions recorded by this anonymous author create chaos for the logical, linear thinker. Statements such as 1:6-7 begin to use synonymous terms to describe what the announcement of the author is.

1. God is light

2. If we walk in darkness we do not "do" the "truth"

3. If we walk in the light

The definitive approach states that light and truth are two distinct words, thus two non equivalent terms. The descriptive approach sees that "do" the "truth" is equivalent to "walk in the light" in terms of opposites to walking in darkness.

The question is "how do we help students learn to think descriptively rather than definitively?"