Masters Degrees (Old and New Testament)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Old and New Testament) by browse.metadata.advisor "Combrink, H. J. B."

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    Children as hermeneutes : readings of the seven parables in Matthew thirteen
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2001-03) Lloyd, Raymond Henry; Combrink, H. J. B.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Old and New Testament.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This qualitative empirical study is located in one of the aims of Bible Skills which focuses on 'the Bible in today's world' and specifically on the foregrounding of the ordinary reader in recent research. The study aimed to answer two mutually dependent research questions about children as ordinary readers of the Bible. The first question was concerned with the sense children of ten make of the seven parabolic units in Matthew thirteen and the second with the children's hermeneutical processes and strategies. A small sample of thirteen Grade 5 learners was divided into three leaderless groups to work out over three discussion episodes what the parables meant to teach. A" discussions were audio-taped, transcribed and subject to a content analysis for features of the children's interpretations. The researcher's analysis of the readings was brought into dialogue with three previous critical assessments of the parables by trained readers. The discussion data were also used to make inferences regarding eight dimensions of the hermeneutical task. Two tentative conclusions relative to the two research questions were drawn from these observations. The children could readily conceptualize reading parables as a search for meaning and were we" able to discover together an agreed and intelliqible meaning of the allotted parables. The children also had available to them and could intuitively use an identifiable pattern of hermeneutical strategies. Several limitations of the study are considered, together with some implications for the study of the. Bible in religious education and some comments on further research.