Review
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Title: The New Testament Made Harder: Scripture Study Questions
Author: James E. Faulconer
Publisher: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship (Brigham Young University, Provo UT)
Genre: Scripture study aid
Year of Publication: 2015
Number of Pages: 518
Binding: paper (also available in ebook formats)
ISBN13: 978-0-8425-2871-9
Price: $21.95 (paper)
Reviewed by Julie J. Nichols for the Association for Mormon Letters
[Editor’s note: in her excellent review, Julie refers to another title, “Search, Ponder, and Pray,” which she also reviewed. You can read the review here: http://blog.mormonletters.org/?page_id=8316. JN]
This is one of the “Made Harder” series. Faulconer, philosopher, professor, and associate director of The Wheatley Institution at Brigham Young University, has “made harder” the Old Testament, the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants for serious students of these books of scripture in keeping with an only-partially tongue-in-cheek outlook about the need to quit making things easier. Without ascribing his epigraph to Kierkegaard, Faulconer quotes the fictional “Johannes Climacus” (a novel by Kierkegaard ca 1842) in an epigraph:
“Wherever you look about you…you see…the many benefactors of the age who know how to benefit mankind by making life easier and easier, some by railways, others by omnibuses and steamboats, others by the telegraph, others by easily apprehended compendiums and short recitals of everything worth knowing, and finally the true benefactors of the age who make spiritual existence in virtue of thought easier and easier….You must do something, but inasmuch as…it will be impossible to make anything easier than it has become, you must…undertake to make something harder.”
To this amusing but praiseworthy end, Faulconer has done something like what Julie Smith does in *Search, Ponder, and Pray* (Kofford Books 2014). Or has Smith built upon Faulconer’s idea? Which came first? Smith’s book was first published ten years ago, and Faulconer’s series has been in the works for quite a while. In any case, Smith presents thought-provoking questions-sans-answers for each chapter of each of the four Gospels in linear order, for independent readers to consider and research on their own. Her book is limited to Mark, Luke, Matthew, and John, and makes concise yet substantial use of critical and literary commentary on these texts as well as latter-day scripture.
Faulconer, on the other hand, directs his book specifically to LDS Gospel Doctrine teachers and serious class members: “The aim of these materials is to help us prepare for Sunday School lessons…to help those who would like to study the readings but aren’t sure how to go about doing so” (xi). The book is structured around the Gospel Doctrine manual, lesson by lesson, deepening the material there with a little commentary, but mostly with provocative questions sure to incite discussion.
Where Smith prods readers to investigate more on their own, Faulconer invites both teacher and student to contribute to live discussion in the context of a Gospel Doctrine class. As a Gospel Doctrine teacher, needing to cover the often overwhelming number of choices offered by the manual, I’ve found both volumes very useful. Smith and Faulconer raise some of the same questions, but there are significant differences.
For example, regarding John 17, the “Great Intercessory Prayer” and one of my favorite New Testament scriptures, Smith provides interesting brief interpretations by scholars Fernando Segovia, Hugh Nibley, and Wayne Brouwer (238-9), focusing on questions readers could ask about the structure and themes of the prayer (which she also calls “the Farewell Discourse”).
In contrast, Faulconer addresses John 17 along with John 16 (as the manual does). He begins this section by hearkening back to John 15: “How would the teaching of chapter 15 strengthen [the concerned and stressed disciples] against [the difficulties that are sure to arise after He is gone] (273) ?” I can imagine an energetic discussion about this alone—there go ten or fifteen minutes of class time!
But now Faulconer presents a number of other equally provocative discussion questions: “Many Christians refer to this chapter as ‘The Great High Priestly Prayer.’ Why do you think they do so? Latter-day Saints usually call this prayer ‘The Great Intercessory Prayer.’ Why? Are the two names for this prayer related? If so how (278-9)?” And “Though we know that Jesus prayed often, we know the content of only a few of his prayers. Why did John believe it was important to tell us what Jesus said in this prayer (279)?” And so on, through each verse or section of verses.
In his introduction to *The New Testament Made Harder,* Faulconer describes how a fine professor he encountered during grad school taught him the difference between questions *about* scripture, and questions *coming from within* scripture, questions that attempt to reconcile scripture with “the philosophy of men” vs. questions that wrestle with the actual content of the text. These latter are the kinds of questions he presents. If teachers and students of the Gospel Doctrine Sunday School lessons want to spend good time addressing the actual texts of the New Testament and their implications for Christian living, these will fill the time and then some. And now that we’re out of the Gospels and into the Acts and letters, Faulconer’s book has particular value beyond Smith’s.
In his introduction to the book, Faulconer explains his intentions and structure. He presents a clear and succinct overview of “Jewish History between the Old and New Testaments,” orienting both teachers and students to some of the problems inherent in attempting to nail down “the facts” about events between the end of the Old Testament, in about 600 BC, and the first texts describing the birth of Christ. Finally, he provides, in a section on “What is the New Testament?” a foundation for thinking about this collection of texts. They are, he says, divided into two sections: the Gospels, or testimonies, and letters describing events and acts after the Ascension of Christ.
As we move into this second section in the manual, I am gratified by the brevity and value of the notes Faulconer provides to accompany the textual investigations. In his section on Lesson 28, for example (the first five chapters of Acts), he summarizes the well-known stories to be found there before he dives into the chapters verse by verse. After the summary, he asks “Why do stories help us understand how to live in the world as Christians better than lists of principles? Pick one or two of these stories and use them to reflect on what it means to be a Christian” (313-14). A teacher hardly needs to do much else—know those stories, ask that question, and field the flying ideas!
But there’s much more in the section: cross-references and close readings and “why do you think–?” inquiries, couched within the text itself and eliciting from students their impressions and observations regarding the ramifications of the stories for themselves. This book “goes down easy” (as Jane Smiley, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, says is her goal with every book she produces): it’s easy to hold in the hands, thick but not wide or tall and not at all heavy. It’s easy to read, with a font a little larger than usual, but not insultingly so, and the format is happily uncomplicated.
It’s not too expensive, and if you’re a student in, or a teacher of, an LDS Gospel Doctrine class, or if you’ve been avoiding those same classes because you’ve felt that the treatment of the material in the manual just doesn’t suit you, I recommend checking out this book. It’ll greatly enlarge your experience. You’ll be glad you did.