I once had the privilege to meet with a reasonably well-known man who edits Bible study curriculum. My chief questions for him were: What is your vision for publishing Bible curriculum? Why do you think we need more curriculum, instead of simply greater Bible literacy? How do you avoid creating a dependence with your subscribers, such that they turn to you and your materials instead of going directly to God’s Word?

Now, I may have caught this fellow on a bad day. And our appointment was cut a little short due to factors outside of his control. So I don’t want to blast him for a single conversation. But I must admit I was terribly disappointed that he had nothing for me better than, “The curriculum helps people.”

I pestered him with follow-up questions. Helps them with what? Helps them how? Why must we produce more and more curriculum that only decreases people’s confidence in their ability to read the unmediated text of Scripture? But he confessed to having no answers for me.

A Very Different Answer

Some time later, I came across a guest post by Jen Wilkin about this very problem: training Christians (especially Christian women) to rely on commentary and Christian books more than the Book of books. I couldn’t be any more delighted by her thesis.

I explored Ms. Wilkin’s website and discovered that she, too, wrote her own Bible study curriculum. I couldn’t see how that practice fit with the point of her article, so I contacted her directly to ask her the same questions I had asked the first gentleman. Her answer was far less pragmatic than his and came pregnant with a compelling vision:

I write curricula with the intent of training women how to use the tools…At the beginning of each of my studies I tell the women that, while I hope they will learn the book of the Bible we are studying, my greater hope is that they will better know how to handle their Bibles on their own once we are finished.

Eventually, I hope my women will rely on a curriculum less and less, having learned by repeated use how to ask good questions and honor the learning process on their own.

Here was something I could get excited about. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Wilkin’s new book Women of the Word: How to Study the Bible with Both our Hearts and our Minds, and Crossway was willing to provide me with a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. I could not fault her intentions; would she be able to deliver on them?

Money Moments

I’m happy to say Wilkin does, in fact, deliver. Her little book is a powerhouse of training, inspiring and equipping ordinary people to study God’s Word. I benefitted greatly from this book, even though Wilkin’s target audience is Christian women. The only time I felt like she wasn’t speaking to me was in the last chapter where she gives counsel for women who teach women’s Bible studies.

Here are some of the many highlights that stuck with me:

• Right thinking will lead to right feeling, not vice versa. Too many of us get this backwards.
• “If Bible literacy is our goal, we need an honest evaluation of what we are currently doing to achieve it.” I’m addicted to what Wilkin calls the “Xanax approach” to the Bible: I feel guilty if my time in Scripture doesn’t make me feel better in some way.
• The Bible tells one Big Story of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. We’ll understand each passage best when we see how it connects to this larger story arc.
• Finding historical background is not merely an intellectual exercise. Good Bible study depends upon it. And it can be fun!
• The desire for instant gratification is mortally dangerous to our Bible study. Sometimes we get nothing at all from a single reading session. We need to have more patience over time to see the benefits.
• “It is good for us to earnestly attempt interpretation on our own before we read the interpretations of others. And this means we must wait to consult commentaries, study Bibles, podcasts, blogs, and paraphrases for interpretive help until we have taken our best shot at interpreting on our own.”

Some Caution

I have two minor differences with the book worthy of comment.

1. Oversimplification. Wilkin covers a lot of ground with a very low word count. This fact occasionally leads her to oversimplify unhelpfully. For example, her discussion of literary genres contains little nuance and, without caution, may set some on false trails: “Historical narrative uses language to give a factual retelling of events. It intends to be taken at face value…Wisdom literature uses language to communicate principles that are generally true, though not universally true. Reading a proverb as a promise can lead to heartache and doubt.”
2. Cross-references. Wilkin puts more stock in cross-references than I’m comfortable with. She includes the looking up of cross-references as a critical step in interpretation, but again I think this approach can at times generate more smoke than light. The original readers of James didn’t have access to Paul’s letters to help interpret James’s letter (Paul’s letters weren’t even written yet!). I believe it’s more important for us to understand James in his own right first before we begin the work of connecting his ideas to the rest of Scripture. Accessing cross-references too soon can actually take us down the wrong track and cause us to miss the point at hand.

Conclusion

My minor differences shouldn’t dampen enthusiasm for the book. I’m happy to recommend it to you. I learned from Wilkin’s ability to communicate complex ideas in simple language. And she made a compelling case for the need of more women teaching women in the church. Women teachers have something to offer Christ’s body that no men can provide.

In my email correspondence with Ms. Wilkin, we joked that we must be twins separated at birth and that we wish we had crossed paths sooner. If you have been helped by this blog, you will find much of benefit in Women of the Word.