Jasper Knecht – Reading the Scriptures with the Early Church
In episode 12 of TheoDisc, Kenny chats with Dr Jasper Knecht. In this conversation, Jasper and Kenny talked about how the early church provides a rich field of study of the Scriptures for the Charismatic church of today. Topics like exegesis, sola scriptura, allegory, and historical critical method abounded in our discussion, and it was truly fascinating. We hope you enjoy it!
Jasper Knecht teaches Christian Doctrine at WTC. He grew up in the Netherlands, and completed his PhD in Systematic and Historical Theology at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. His interests include the history of doctrine, and particularly the development of Christological thought in the Patristic era, Late Antiquity, and the Early Medieval Church. Jasper is married to Stefania and is a big fan of classical music.
Episode 12 Outline:
- Start-01:11 – Introduction
- 01:17-04:22 – Welcome to Jasper and 3 questions.
- 04:31-12:15 – How does the early church provide a rich field of study, particularly of the Scriptures, for the Charismatic and Evangelical movements today? Why do you think the Charismatic church of today is often reticent to look to the early church? Does our understanding of the Holy Spirit might be a fruitful meeting ground with the early church regarding the Scriptures?
- 12:23-22:58 – How does our current dominant method of exegeting the Scriptures compare with what we know of the early church’s approaches and strategies? Why would reading Scripture allegorically make us uncomfortable today? Would it require a deeper leaning on the Spirit to read Scripture this way?
- 23:06-30:23 – In what ways do you think the early church and the contemporary charismatic church can embrace ‘across the centuries’? How do we then broaden our reading of Scripture to include the methods of the early church? Finally, any recommendations for reading?
- 30:31-End – Close and further information
