- Episode 194: Taught by God: Brandon Smith on Reading Scripture Like the Early Church

Taught by God: Brandon Smith on Reading Scripture Like the Early ChurchFor most of church history, Christians read the Bible very differently than modern scholars do — and Dr. Brandon D. Smith thinks the modern church has lost something important in the trade. In this episode, Chad sits down with Smith, chair of theology at Oklahoma Baptist University, to talk about recovering the interpretive instincts of the early church for readers today.Brandon and Chad work through his book Taught by God: Ancient Hermeneutics for the Modern Church. Rather than pitching one more interpretive “method,” Smith argues that premodern exegetes — from Irenaeus and Athanasius to Aquinas and Calvin — shared a set of sensibilities: attention to the letter and history of the text, a conviction about the theological and Christological unity of all Scripture, and the aim of personal and ecclesial communion with God. They discuss what it means to read Scripture as a spiritual exercise rather than mere information-gathering, where allegory helps and where it goes wrong, how trinitarian and creedal faith shapes interpretation, and what evangelicals stand to gain by reading in communion with the saints who came before them.Dr. Brandon D. Smith (PhD, Ridley College, Melbourne) is chair of the Herschel H. Hobbs School of Theology & Ministry and associate professor of theology and early Christianity at Oklahoma Baptist University. A co-founder of the Center for Baptist Renewal and host of the Church Grammar podcast, he is the author or editor of several books, including The Biblical Trinity, The Trinity in the Canon, and Beholding the Triune God.Links:🎙️ Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AHOCT🌐 A History of Christian Theology: https://www.ahistoryofchristiantheology.com📖 Taught by God (B&H Academic): https://www.christianbook.com/taught-ancient-hermeneutics-modern-church-ebook/9781087752747/pd/128903EB👤 Dr. Brandon D. Smith at Oklahoma Baptist University: https://www.okbu.edu/directory/brandon-smith𝕏 Follow the podcast: @theologyxian | 📘 facebook.com/ahistoryofchristiantheology