Preparing for Disability Awareness Sunday: An educational exercise drawing on psychological perspectives for biblical hermeneutics

Abstract

Some of the Gospel passages proposed for Disability Awareness Sunday raise challenges as well as opportunities for preachers. This paper reports findings from an educational exercise, drawing on insights from the SIFT approach to biblical hermeneutics, in which 23 Anglican clergy studied Mark 2: 1–12 and Mark 10: 46–52 in groups structured according to their psychological type preferences: sensing or intuition, thinking or feeling. The data demonstrate how a richer interpretation of the passages emerges when the groups share their distinctive perspectives. Recommendations are offered for developing preaching workshops on this theme.