Scripture Reading Practices of Methodist Youth

Abstract

Framed as the “transaction” between readers and texts, this article examines the scripture reading practices of three Methodist youth. Data were generated through verbal protocols in which youth verbalized their thinking as they read self-selected passages from the Bible. Multiple rounds of inductive thematic analyses identified how the youth used interpretive questions, visualizations, summaries, comparisons, and real-life applications to construct knowledge from their respective passages. This work raises key issues about the nature of youths’ experiences with sacred texts, how youth develop scripture-reading repertoires, and what counts as reading across faiths.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank Christiana Erickson for her valuable assistance with this article and the youth who participated for their generosity.

Notes

1 In a transaction “the knower, the knowing, and the known are seen as aspects of ‘one process’ [in which] each element conditions and is conditioned by the other in a mutually constituted situation” (Rosenblatt 2013, 924). Rosenblatt (1985) intends to convey an organic metaphor with the word transaction that would suggest a living experience between a reader and a text, both of which she views as part of a “total situation” or “total event” (98).

2 For an in-depth examination of youths’ scripture reading practices informed by the religiocultural contexts of one Methodist congregation and one Latter-Day Saint congregation, see Rackley 2014.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eric Rackley

Eric Rackley is Assistant Professor in the School of Education, Brigham Young University–Hawaii, Laie, Hawaii. E-mail: [email protected]