Talk:Bible study (Christianity)

Retooling Layout
I plan on retooling some of the section headings/layout; "Inductive Bible study" and "Exegetical Bible study" are both academic methodologies, and do not belong under the heading of "Personal Bible study."

My plan is to keep the main section under "Personal Bible study," but create a new "Academic Bible study" section outlining the methods mentioned above. I will also add some new subsections to get a more representative sampling of the common methods. This section will then link to the "Biblical studies" main article. Finally, I will be rewriting the "Inductive Bible study" subsection, as I am trained in this methodology and the entry is incomplete and has a number of inaccuracies.

"Christian"
"Christian" is a misnomer in this case. The term refers to very specific groups of Christians called Protestants. Protestants cannot claim to represent all Christians. Do the references in this article apply to Oriental Orthodox Churches? Clearly not.

I am proposing that this artilce be moved to some other title such as Devotion (Evangelicalism) or Devotion (Christian fundamentalism). Pick one.

Vaquero100 02:26, 16 July 2006 (UTC)


 * If I understand correctly, this article is for the concept of "bible study". This concept is a Christian concept, not a evangelical or fundamentalist only concept. In fact, I did a search and found a book The Catholic Women’s Devotional Bible, that says "A Bible designed to make Scripture more accessible to Catholic women, focusing on deepening their spirituality by nurturing a love for God and his Word and teaching them how to use Scripture in prayer and daily life." Sounds like the description in this article. I personally think those two naming proposals are too narrow for the scope of this article. Any more ideas?--Andrew c 04:28, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

If this is the case, then the above content needs to be added to the article and not to the talk page. Otherwise, the title needs to be changed. Vaquero100 19:18, 16 July 2006 (UTC)


 * In all honesty, I think this article needs some work. Parts of the article read like an ad (and what's up with the redlinks?) I also think this article should be renamed either Christian bible study or Bible study (Christianity). I do not think there is anything specifically about this article (except the parts I call "ads") that is specifically evangelical. Like I said, the idea of 'bible study' or 'devotion' isn't unique to one sect, and is actually found in the RCC as well. By changing the name of the article, we a) use a term that I feel is more common b) avoid confusion with an identical term that has a specifically catholic meaning (devotions, such as the Sacred Heart and c) use a term that still fits the content of this article, but also a term that is clearly used in a vast number of sects (including Mormons and JWs). So what do you think? Am I missing something? Is this article describing something that is unique to evangelical churches?--Andrew c 18:26, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Andrew c, not to burst your bubble, but I looked up the Catholic Women's Devotional Bible you referenced above. I knew there had to be something odd about it as the words "devotion" and "devotional" have nothing to do with the bible or bible studies in the Catholic lexicon. This bible is produced by Zondervan a Protestant publishing company which has a long history of publishing Protestant theological materials with a specifically anti-Catholic slant. Furthermore, the translation is the NRSV, which is Protestant. This "Catholic" devotional bible is actually a re-packaged Evangelical "Women's Devotional Bible" marketed to Christian (Protestant) Bookstores for Protestants to give to their unsuspecting Catholic friends or to lure Catholics into thinking the other materials in the bookstore are simpathetic to Catholics. Here in Indiana it is common for Protestant bookstores selling quite anti-Catholic materials to put rosaries in the front window or near the door and a "Catholic" study bible among their other bibles to lure the unsuspecting.

Andrew, please, this word is not used in Catholic circles in relation to Bible study, which we just call a Bible study. I would be satisfied if this article were titles Devotion (Protestant). Christian is out of the question as this term includes Catholics (unless you are one of those who thinks Catholics arent Christians), and this article does not refer to Catholic devotion. Vaquero100 20:15, 20 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Ok, thats good information on the book I found. Sorry I didn't look deeper into it. That said, you said "in Catholic circles... we just call a Bible study". And I proposed renaming the article to Bible study (Christianity). I also proposed re-writing the article to cover bible study among all denominations, and to remove the "ads". Are any of these suggestions inappropriate? I am not trying to argue or debate. I'm trying to make this article better. Sorry for goofing on the Catholic Bible study book, but can we focus on improving this article? Or is there a concept of "bible study" that is strictly protestant that I am missing. If so, can you define this form of "bible study" that Catholics do not use.--Andrew c 22:50, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

In case this isn't clear, there is no bible study article. That page is a disambig page. The closest article that exists to the vernacular use of the term "bible study" is this article. However, I think this article is problematic. I propose moving this article to Bible study (Christianity), and doing a major overhaul. We both agree that Catholics have bible study, as do JW, and Mormons, and many other denominations, so this isn't just a Protestant thing or an evangelical thing. The only problem I forsee with making this move is that perhaps the use of the word "devotion" is more prevelant without certain circles to refer to what I believe is more commonly called "bible study". Anyway, that's what I'm trying to accomplish here.--Andrew c 23:21, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

Actually, Bible study (Christian) is fine with me, as long as it has representative materials. I have no idea what a Bible study would look like in an Orthodox context. Vaquero100

-- the section near the end on author Kay sounds somewhat like an advertisement -- —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.252.160.20 (talk) 11:59, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

AfD
I am considering nominating the article for deletion. Of course many people study the Bible but "Bible study" seems to mean different things to different people. Jaque Hammer (talk) 14:04, 4 October 2010 (UTC)
 * This was a speedy keep; see above. Bearian (talk)

Improvements
This article needs major improvements. More information is needed on bible studies from the different practices of different Christian groups.. mainly Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox, Protestant, Evangelical, Mormon, and Jehova's Witnesses. --Willthacheerleader18 (talk) 21:16, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Catholic Bible Study
I added section for Catholic Bible Study to expand content beyond perspective of Evangelicalism. Content in this article uses content and links related to other Wikipedia content including: Providentissimus Deus, Divino afflante Spiritu, Dei Verbum, and Verbum Domini. FullfillC21 (talk) 04:45, 12 June 2018 (UTC)