Friday 29 February 2008

Hermeneutics Quiz


Thanks to Joshua who highlighted this rather interesting Hermeneutics Quiz designed by Scot McKnight.

"Ever wonder how two people can look at the same passage of the Bible and come away with such different applications? The ways we interpret the Bible, and what enters into our process of applying the Bible, are important for us to be aware of. Without this self-awareness, we can have blind spots in our Bible reading and not even know it."

This quiz "is designed to clarify how you understand the Bible and how you apply it. Some people will quibble with the categories in the quiz or insist on more than one answer. That’s okay. No test like this can reveal all the nuances needed, but broad answers are sufficient to benefit from taking the quiz."

As for me, I scored 72. According to this quiz, that makes me "a progressive," among the other 2 camps made up of conservative and moderate on the Hermeneutics Scale.

According to this scale, a progressive "tends to see the Bible as historically shaped and culturally conditioned, and yet most still consider it the Word of God for today. Following a progressive hermeneutic, for the Word to speak in our day, one must interpret what the Bible said in its day and discern its pattern for revelation in order to apply it to our world. The strength, as with the moderate but even more so, is the challenge to examine what the Bible said in its day, and this means the progressives tend to be historians. But the problems for the progressives are predictable: Will the Bible's so-called "plain meaning" be given its due and authoritative force to challenge our world? Or will the Bible be swallowed by a quest to find modern analogies that sometimes minimize what the text clearly says?"

Click here for further explanation of the score.

Hmmmm....any truth in this?

So go ahead and take the Hermeneutics Quiz. Let's see which camp you belong to.


8 comments:

BK said...

I scored 57 - a moderate! But some of the questions very hard to answerlah - but I guess his disclaimer covers that.

Paul Long said...

I have decide not to even try the quiz. I don't want to know ... hmmmm does this make me a progressive agnostic? LOL

Kar Yong said...

Hi BK,

Haha - just take everything with a pinch of salt.....

Kar Yong said...

Hi Paul,

Why not?

SATheologies said...

Hi KY,

some of the questions and their answers are not within my option. For eg. question 4 concerning the commandment in OT to destroy non-Israelites.

And that affects the score. So, like you said, take it with pinches of salt :)

JW

David BC Tan said...

haha. i'm a moderate hermeneutic at 52. it's an interesting quiz which is revealing not in the categories one may find himself/herself, but in the 'struggle' we are all committed to for God's word be God's word to us.

Kar Yong said...

Hi JW,

Agreed - I was just being cheeky in some of the questions - just tried to push the boundaries and see what score I would get. But it is a good exercise and a fun one too!

Kar Yong said...

Hi David,
Yes - it's fun. And it forces us to think of how we can make the Scripture relevant in our context.