BOOK REVIEW : Rehearsing Scripture by Anna Carter Florence

In this book, Anna Carter Florence, (Professor of Preaching at Columbia Theological Seminary), encourages us to use techniques from the world of theatre to help us “find the script in scripture.” Intended as a tool for group-work, the techniques can also be used individually. The purpose is to help us “encounter” scripture rather than just read it - “The Word needs a body” - and to use this experience of encounter to “say something true” to others.

The first half of the book sets out the techniques for rehearsing scripture in detail, while the second half applies these to different passages as worked examples, with a helpful commentary.

Anna Carter Florence explains that like any good script, the Bible has only a fraction of adjectives compared to nouns and verbs - “the best literature uses language that moves.” At the heart of her technique is learning to read scripture “verbs first.” This sounds simple but, as she goes on to illustrate, most of us read text nouns first. This can be paralyzing when reading scripture, as so many of the nouns need explanation and contextualisation to help us make sense of them today - in doing which we further distance ourselves from the text. Verbs, she argues, need no such work. By encountering scripture verbs first we immediately come closer to the text. “We share the same verbs with Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Mary and Joseph...” “That is the whole point of the Incarnation - that God came to share our verbs.”

Through worked examples, we are encouraged to identify and then ask questions about the use of verbs in the text, to help us encounter the scripture. She recommends asking questions such as:

·        How are the verbs distributed amongst the characters?

·        What is the order of the verbs?

·        What tense is used?

·        What emotions do the verbs stir in us?

·        If God is speaking in the passage, how do his verbs differ from those used by others?

She goes on to draw on rehearsal techniques from the world of theatre, to show how blocking out scenes and inhabiting the life of different characters - a sort of group Lectio Divina - can help us find the truth in the text. Anna Carter Florence particularly encourages us to practice “underground reading” - encountering the text as if we were living in a place and time when the world was hostile to people of our faith. “What if we could be arrested or killed for gathering in this way? What if the way we were interpreting scripture went against our emperor, slave master or faith leaders?”

The purpose of the exercise is not only for personal interior enlightenment, but to find - and share - the truth of the text. She suggests that the questions that jump out through the process of rehearsing scripture are a result of the “Spirit trying to get your attention” and encourages us to follow this lead - to determine for ourselves how the scripture speaks to the world today. 

Part Two of the book uses challenging scripture; the Rape of Tamar, the Book of Esther, Moses and the Burning Bush and the encounters between Jesus and a number of others in Mark Chapter 5 as worked examples to explore different aspects of ‘rehearsing scripture.’ 

The book uses a lot of lists - which may be helpful to some - although I think the “ten points” approach seems laboured at times - points eight, nine and ten seemed to be superfluous or repetitious in some cases. Often I found the chapter titles a bit off-putting (eg Chapter 5 - Playing Fair. Digging in Sandboxes with Ten Rules of Etiquette). 

But most importantly was the technique helpful?

The first challenge is finding all the verbs in the text! It sounds silly but after a while I began to second guess everything I learnt at school! As you would expect these days there is a great app that does the work for you colour-coding the different parts of any text. It shows verbs in purple. For instance, the text for today’s Gospel reading (John 17.1-11) is below. 

This passage, apart from a brief introduction, consists entirely of Jesus speaking to God in prayer. The worked examples that Anna Carter Florence used all seemed to involve more than one person speaking. But whilst this passage is a monologue, the verbs are not applied to just one person; but to Jesus, God and the disciples, for whom Jesus is praying. The verbs help us to see the interrelationship between Jesus, his Father and the disciples; the tenses change, to show us that our linear understanding of time has no meaning in the context of the divine - eternal life is to know the Father and Christ and their intimate relationship: present, past and future appear in a single sentence : “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” The distribution of the verbs also seems to emphasise this relationship - at the beginning and ending of the passage the verbs describe the dynamic between Jesus and God, with the relationship of the disciples placed centrally, or contained, within this. The structure of the passage has, like its message, a completeness to it.

In today’s gospel reading, unlike those chosen as examples in Anna Carter Florence’s book, there are no complicated nouns to distract or distance us from the text. But reading the text “verbs first” is still an interesting way to approach the text and one which, I think, helps me to come closer to it. 

Learning the technique of “Rehearsing Scripture” is, Anna Carter Florence says, like learning how to cook - and can help us to see the Bible as a well stocked fridge -  a treasury of possibilities - rather than declaring that there is nothing to eat and reaching for a ready meal! This book may be helpful to all those, like me, who are very good at eating but less so at preparing the food! 

Rehearsing Scripture: Discovering God's Word in Community by Anna Carter Florence is published in the UK by Canterbury Press.