I feel uneasy asking this question in the first place. Generally, speaking, I think we should avoid stances that resemble gatekeeping or judgment about the merits of someone else’s engagement with an activity. If a religious person finds enjoyment or growth through deep reading their own religious text, why shouldn’t we consider that to be “reading?”
Then again, I’ve found – as have many of us – that “reading” as an activity involves encountering new perspectives, narratives, philosophies, and understandings of the world and humanity’s experiences in it. Does focused reading of a single religious text – especially when it is the text of one’s own faith tradition – fulfill the same purposes I described above?
Curious to hear folks’ thoughts about this. For the religious readers out there, does your own “Bible study” (or call it what you will) fall into a similar mental activity as other reading you might do?
by choirandcooking