When I took an Old Testament survey course in college, I was required to learn, in order, all the kings of Israel, in preparation for the final exam. I had a rather amazing ability to cram for exams at the last-minute, but I detested rote memorization. Why couldn’t I spend that time grappling with the great conundrum of human suffering posed by Job, or with the requirements of justice that the prophet Amos called for? I would have much preferred pondering the theological questions raised by the Old Testament than to get bogged down in the details of whether Pekahiah came before or after Pekah, or whether he ruled in Judah or Israel (2 Kings 15).

Perhaps it is typical of my generation, the baby boomers, to rebel against the pedagogy of memorizing facts. It seems so, well, inauthentic--superfluous even. So long as we know where to get the information, why take precious time to store it in our heads?

On the other hand, what we don’t have tucked away in our heads isn’t there for us when we need it. I recall hearing how Willard Swartley, New Testament professor at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, was unable to read for a time while recovering from a nearly fatal heart attack. So he spent his time going through the Psalms mentally! He later reported there were fewer than 10 Psalms out of 150 from which he couldn’t remember anything. Frankly, I was envious of Willard when I heard that. What a resource that must be to have that many of the Psalms available for recall! Many of my generation would be hard pressed to remember 10 verses from the Psalms.

Could it be that my generation’s rebellion against Bible memory is partly to blame for the many laments we hear about biblical illiteracy? I once heard Marion Bontrager, longtime Bible teacher at Hesston College, say that Mennonite youth not only don’t know the Bible stories; they don’t know the biblical story of salvation, either--how it unfolded from Abraham to Moses, David to Jesus, the disciples to the Hellenistic world. And, as Marion is quoted as saying in this issue, the problem is getting worse.

Of course we shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves. Biblical illiteracy is complex, and there are many cultural forces working against Bible knowledge. If you figure that our children spend an hour a week in Sunday school, from age three through grade twelve, that amounts to 832 hours of religious education. That may sound like a lot of hours--but it is downright meager compared to the 11,000 hours they spend in school, or the estimated 15,000 hours of television they watch during the same period of time.

When Leader’s editorial committee planned this issue on the Bible, we decided the focus should be biblical formation, not biblical literacy--why and how we should be formed by the Bible, not just informed about the Bible. The Christian faith is a lived reality--not just something we know in our heads. To become Christian involves transformation, and to become like Christ involves discipleship over time. Still, biblical literacy and biblical formation shouldn’t be pitted against each other, as if there could be any real formation without information.

Two things are needed in our congregations. First we must take time to learn, interpret, grapple with, and take delight in individual biblical texts. Second, we must grapple with or, better still, be grasped by the great scope of the biblical story, from Genesis to Revelation, from Alpha to Omega. Where and how are both these happening in your church? How are you being intentional about the big picture and the many little “pictures”?

We Mennonites like to think of ourselves as a biblical people, as we should. From this Book we gain our identity. The people of the Book are our people, the God of the Book is our God. And from this Book we find our orientation for living. Unless we live with this Book, how can it live through us?

Richard A. Kauffman