Lectio Divina approach to preaching

I am doing research on the Lectio Divina approach to preaching. I have read this article “Preaching As Lectio Divina: An Evangelical and Expository Approach” (co-written with Susan P. Currie). Evangelical Homiletics Society 1 (2004): 10-24. I want something deeper. Can someone make a good suggestion?

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Floyd Johnson

I just did a Google search using the topic of this thread. There are some interesting posts - I don't have access to your original article, so no way to compare the collected thoughts, but you may find something of value.

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1197276#Comment_1197276

I just did a Google search using the topic of this thread.

Well, I guess Mr Challies didn't hold back:

https://www.challies.com/articles/a-danger-of-lectio-divina/

MJ. Smith

Okay, I am totally flabbergasted. I'd become aware that "lectio divina" had become a Humpty Dumpty word (one that means whatever you want it to mean) and even experienced a dreadful hybrid of it in my own parish. But I can provide you some excellent resources on traditional lectio divina, Lectio divina is primarily an individual practice with some group adaptations (a common way to open meetings in my parish at one time). It is never denominational or expository ... there may useful hybrids that are but not the "real deal". For those unfamiliar with traditional lectio divina:

Lectio Divina | New Camaldoli Hermitage (contemplation.com) one of many possible sources">
The traditional four fold method of Lectio Divina:

Lectio: The actual reading and re-reading of the text, usually biblical, until certain words or phrases call forth our attention.

Meditatio: the rumination on key words, phrases or images, allowing them to evoke something within the reader.

Oratio: These words, phrases or key words eventually evoke or inspire prayer. We hear the word and respond in loving dialogue.

Contemplatio: Dialogue gives way to silent awareness of God’s presence. We simply abide with God as long as attracted by God’s grace.

My apologies for the outburst but stealing my tradition's vocabulary for something quite different is a strange type of abuse that makes communication across traditions even more difficult.

Note this is not the place to argument the fundamental differences in theology exposed here. However, I believe that the simple procedure that is traditional may be offered without explanation.

Edit: on further "google research" I found what has been bastardized most frequently in the misappropriation. The definition of contemplatio:

Traditional lectio divina:

[quote]Dialogue gives way to silent awareness of God’s presence. We simply abide with God as long as attracted by God’s grace.

Bastardization:

[quote]beginning to imagine how a text might be lived out

I.e. changing God's action to human action. See why I'm annoyed?

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1197278#Comment_1197278

https://www.challies.com/articles/a-danger-of-lectio-divina/

Thanks for this reference. Challies, although I disagree with him, seems to have actually done his homework. Not 100% accurate but definitely well-informed and understands where the actual issues are. He even caught the distinction between text and living word.

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1197289#Comment_1197289

My apologies for the outburst but stealing my tradition's vocabulary for something quite different is a strange type of abuse that makes communication across traditions even more difficult.

Yes, I can see where 'hijacking' the vocabulary is becoming more and more, almost aggressive. I cringe at some of the usage these days. Latin had its benefits in strict usage.

MJ. Smith

I found the article at Book (ehomiletics.org) - it is really quite good despite the conflation of lectio divina (quiet watchfulness) with Ignatian exercises (active imagination). I suggest that the place for you to start, Christian, is with the bibliography

1. Mariano Magrassi, Praying the Bible: An Introduction to Lectio Divina

2. Ignatius of Loyola. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola -- read for information don't try to do the exercises without a guide.

3. Eugene Peterson. The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction. I'm not familiar with this particular book but I trust the author.

I would also suggest that you acquaint yourself with Richard Foster if you aren't already familiar with him. Finally, I suggest you read a book that will seem unrelated but, trust me, it truly is: Roberta Bondi's To Love as God Loves: Conversations with the Early Church

Once you have those five authors under your belt, you should be able to ask more targeted questions that are easier to answer.

mab

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1197348#Comment_1197348

I think if someone switched contemplate for practice in Ezra 7:10 you might wind up with Lectio Divina as an approach to preaching, but it would be dead wrong.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1197402#Comment_1197402

I don't understand your sentence. What would be "dead wrong"? What this particular article encourages is seeing how the God's word challenges/changes you before doing the exegetical work to tell others how it should change them.

P.S. Your example of changing a word in Ezra 7:10 seems misplaced as lectio divina is NOT a replacement for study nor even time taken from Bible study, It is an independent spiritual discipline.

Sean

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1197298#Comment_1197298

Yes, I can see where 'hijacking' the vocabulary is becoming more and more, almost aggressive. I cringe at some of the usage these days. Latin had its benefits in strict usage.

Yo see we're cool and relevant yet retro and edgy so let's say "Missio Dei" instead of just "mission of God" because we heard some guy say it and it sounds cool even though we don't know a single other word of Latin..

(Sorry. This one's been bugging me for a while.)

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1197421#Comment_1197421

we don't know a single other word of Latin.

I believe that Greek and Syriac deserve equal time with the Latin. This Western prejudice just gets to me.[;)]

Roger Pitot

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1197423#Comment_1197423

A few years back I bought four books on Kindle at a reduced price. They are part of a series by Stephen J. Binz called Ancient-Future Bible Study Through Lectio Divina. In the introduction he states:

"Ancient-Future Bible Study unites contemporary study of the Bible with an experience of the church’s most ancient way of reading Scripture, lectio divina. By combining the old and the new in a fertile synthesis, this study helps modern people encounter the sacra pagina, the inspired text, as God intends it for the church. Through solid historical and literary study and the time-honored practice of lectio divina, the mind and the heart are brought into an experience of God through a careful and prayerful reading of the biblical texts."

The four volumes are Abraham, David, Paul and Peter. Each chapter contains sections on Lectio, Meditatio, Oratio, Contemplatio and Operatio.

I love these books, but the practice they recommend does require time.

DAL

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1197423#Comment_1197423

Here’s one example among many on how it’s done in YouTube: https://youtu.be/JCNJE9njUVA

DAL

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1197432#Comment_1197432

The four volumes are Abraham, David, Paul and Peter. Each chapter contains sections on Lectio, Meditatio, Oratio, Contemplatio and Operatio.

Note that Stephen Binz is using an adaptation of the traditional lectio divina with an added step, operatio. This addition is often very useful, especially when introducing lectio divina to an American audience or using it in a group setting.

Roger Pitot

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1197527#Comment_1197527

MJ do you know the book or the author - Opening to God: Lectio Divina as Life and Prayer by David G. Benner? It's on special at Faithlife, a bargain but I don't want to add to my collection unless it might add something to my prayer life.

https://ebooks.faithlife.com/product/221335/opening-to-god-lectio-divina-and-life-as-prayer

DAL

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1203936#Comment_1203936

MJ do you know the book or the author - Opening to God: Lectio Divina as Life and Prayer by David G. Benner? It's on special at Faithlife, a bargain but I don't want to add to my collection unless it might add something to my prayer life.

https://ebooks.faithlife.com/product/221335/opening-to-god-lectio-divina-and-life-as-prayer

Thanks! I purchased it. I’m working on a lesson on prayer and want to include new insights to me other than the usual.

DAL

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1203936#Comment_1203936

MJ do you know the book or the author - Opening to God: Lectio Divina as Life and Prayer by David G. Benner?

I don't know the book but I do know the author. He is generally good on the topic.

Br Damien-Joseph OSB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1203976#Comment_1203976

This is probably well known, but for those unfamiliar it needs to be said. Lectio Divina is primarily inward-focused; it's about God speaking to you through the Holy Scriptures. Anything that comes outward after that--such as preaching, teaching, writing, application, morals, etc.--is secondary, perhaps a side-effect. At least, in the West, that's how it's historically been understood. But as has been said in this thread, there have been many interpretations of lectio... I have seen some put more emphasis on the outward aspect (adding a fifth step, lectio, oratio, meditatio, contemplatio, actio... lol), and some put no emphasis on it at all. So it's really as MJ has said... it's basically whatever each person wants it to be; I'm sure one can find an author who describes it in a way that conforms to their expectations.

Buuuuttt.... I would be remiss to not point out that our contemporary, Western understanding of Lectio Divina typically begins in the 12th century with prior Guigo II's work, The Ladder of Monks, which is strangely not in Logos, though Logos does have many other works by its English publisher. So, if you wanted to look at it from a historical perspective, you can't miss that book. There are certainly things older, but most contemporary understandings of contemporary lectio go back to prior Guigo II's formulation.

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1204044#Comment_1204044

Guigo II's work, The Ladder of Monks, which is strangely not in Logos

There is a piece by Guigo II which I think is a different translation of The Ladder of Monks, called "The Ladder from Earth to Heaven" in Letter & Spirit, Volume 2: The Authority of Mystery: The Word of God and the People of God. But it's sure hard to find unless you happen to already own that volume. It would be good to have Ladder of Monks as a title in one's library.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1204066#Comment_1204066

Great catch Rosie

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1204066#Comment_1204066

I've added a request for Ladder of Monks as a standalone work (actually it comes in a volume with Guigo II's Twelve Meditations, but at least "Ladder of Monks" is in the title). You can vote for it here:

https://feedback.faithlife.com/boards/logos-book-requests/posts/ladder-of-monks-and-twelve-meditations-cistercian-studies-series-volume-48

Br Damien-Joseph OSB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1204079#Comment_1204079

That's great. This is the essential edition.

Hamilton Ramos

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1197402#Comment_1197402

I think if someone switched contemplate for practice in Ezra 7:10 you might wind up with Lectio Divina as an approach to preaching, but it would be dead wrong.

Maybe it would be good to research what meditatio was about according to reformers to get a better idea of what concepts are involved.

"oratio: prayer.

Oratio, meditatio, tentatio faciunt theologum: Prayer, meditation, and trial make the theologian; a maxim from Luther."

Muller, R. A. (1985). Dictionary of Latin and Greek theological terms : drawn principally from Protestant scholastic theology (p. 214). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House.

DAL

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1204112#Comment_1204112

As long as people check their motivatio and do a little oratio there shouldn’t be any tentatio to do things without any connectio 😂😂😂 Understatio?

DAL

Hamilton Ramos

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1204112#Comment_1204112

LOL, kindatio.

Now, seriously, this topic is turning out to be very interesting:

"MEDITATIO

This brings us to Luther’s second rule for the study of theology, meditatio. In reflecting further on Psalm 119, Luther observes:

Thus you see in this same psalm David constantly boasts that he will talk, meditate, speak, sing, hear, read, by day and night and always, about nothing except God’s words and commandments.

This kind of scriptural meditation is God’s “external” answer to the “internal” request for understanding. Luther did not conceive of meditatio as searching the inner self or even listening for the Spirit’s voice inside of one’s self. Instead, meditation is “interaction” with the word, where God gives the Spirit. However, this moment takes time and must be repeated. Luther warns against a disposition in which theologians think they have sufficiently meditated upon the sacred text:

And take care that you do not grow weary or think that you have done enough when you have read, heard, and spoken them once or twice, and that you then have complete understanding. You will never be a particularly good theologian if you do that, for you will be like untimely fruit which falls to the ground before it is half ripe.

According to Luther, the theologian must repeatedly return to meditate upon the Scriptures. This is neither an academic nor pietistic ritual. It is a repeated moment within an ongoing triadic experience (oratio, meditatio, tentatio), where God answers the request for certainty in the sacred text through the Spirit again and again."

Crisler, C. L. (2021). Luther’s Tentatio as the Center of Paul’s Theology. In C. L. Crisler & R. L. Plummer (Eds.), Always Reforming: Reflections on Martin Luther and Biblical Studies (pp. 37–38). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Is neat to explore what reformers thought, and how it differs from their original tradition. Our challenge is to see how it applies to us.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1204410#Comment_1204410

Luther did not conceive of meditatio as searching the inner self or even listening for the Spirit’s voice inside of one’s self. Instead, meditation is “interaction” with the word, where God gives the Spirit. However, this moment takes time and must be repeated. Luther warns against a disposition in which theologians think they have sufficiently meditated upon the sacred text:

Absolutely and to the best of my knowledge this is true of all mainstream Western Christians. I believe the author confused the meaning of the term which is used differently in Asian religions than in Christianity or he had such a strong prejudice that he was misleading. .

[quote]

2708 Meditation engages thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. This mobilization of faculties is necessary in order to deepen our convictions of faith, prompt the conversion of our heart, and strengthen our will to follow Christ.

Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed. (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000), 650.

[quote]

Karl Barth spoke of three basic steps when it comes to reading the Bible: observation (explicatio), reflection (meditatio) and appropriation (applicatio) (Barth 1938: 722–740 [KD I/2, 810–830 = CD I/2, 722–740]).

Mark D. Thompson, A Clear and Present Word: The Clarity of Scripture, ed. D. A. Carson, vol. 21, New Studies in Biblical Theology (England; Downers Grove, IL: Apollos; InterVarsity Press, 2006).

Principles of Biblical Interpretation. Technically Luther did not have a hermeneutic because hermeneutics is a nineteenth-century discipline that presupposes the distance of the biblical text and the need for the interpreter to bridge the gap and make any interpretative moves necessary to bring the text into modern linguistic jargon understandable in post-Enlightenment philosophy.
To be a theologian, the three rules (1539) of prayer (oratio), meditation (meditatio) and temptation or experience (tentatio) need to be practiced every day. These show Luther indebted to the sacred reading (lectio divina) of Scripture deep in the theological tradition of the church.

Kenneth Hagen, “Luther, Martin (1483–1546),” in Dictionary of Major Biblical Interpreters, ed. Donald K. McKim (Downers Grove, IL; Nottingham, England: InterVarsity Press, 2007), 692.

[quote]

Martin Luther had three rules for theological research: (1) oratio, the vertical aspect, involving prayer to God for guidance; (2) meditatio, the objective aspect, involving reading and contemplation of various views; and (3) tentatio, the subjective side, involving personal decision regarding the meaning of the text.

Grant R. Osborne and Stephen B. Woodward, Handbook for Bible Study (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1979), 140.

[quote]

In 1539 Luther wrote a preface to the first volume of his German works. In it he reflected on what made a true theologian, combining an interpretation of Psalm 119 with a positive appropriation of a classic monastic approach to reading Scripture. The monks outlined a threefold method: oratio, meditatio, and illuminatio (prayer, meditation, and illumination). Luther, while taking over the first two (although in very idiosyncratic ways), changed the third to its opposite—tentatio (literally, “temptation,” but in the German equivalent, Anfechtung, “assault” or “attack”)—because he was convinced that when one reads Scripture all hell breaks loose.

Timothy J. Wengert, Reading the Bible with Martin Luther: An Introductory Guide (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013), 123.

Need I continue?

I know your intent was good, even if the guidelines were pushed (as I have done in correcting you). But before posting publicly, you do want to check its accuracy..

Is neat to explore what reformers thought, and how it differs from their original tradition.

You realize that Martin Luther had very few theological differences from the Augustinian Catholicism of his order. Martin Luther was a reformer in the sense of wanting to clean up the behavior of the church hierarchy. That is why, like the Anglicans, Lutherans often considered themselves a "third way" rather than Protestant (in the sense of Calvin) and why High Lutherans are irate that they can't have a special Ordinate in the Catholic church similar to the Anglican one.

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