Using the Bible in Adult Christian Education

The experience of teaching the Bible in a variety of contexts has generated a number of questions, particularly in the light of issues raised by liberation theologies and the encounter with other faiths. In the process of reflection upon this personal material three polarities emerge that shape educational usage of the particular knowledge resource that the Bible represents in adult Christian education: individual/institution, equilibrium/utopia and text/function. The need is recognized to investigate the way the Bible is used from an epistemological perspective and the power-knowledge question becomes a key concern. Two case studies from the Methodist Church, "The Word @ Whitby"a national conference on teaching the Bible, and "Disciple"an intensive one-year group Bible study course for the local church provide research data. Documentary evidence from the Methodist Church is analysed using insights from the writings of Foucault to set the context for these cases and eight discreet functions are identified in the use to which the Bible is put. These functions point towards the investigation of power and control in the teaching processes, where the insights of Apple supplement those of Foucault, to the epistemological potential of narrative, and the nature and consequences of what I have identified as the dominating "communication"function. Foucault's notion of pastoral power is discussed and points towards a supplementary pattern of "hortatory"power with its roots in Protestant preaching traditions.