{"id":28989,"date":"2022-10-06T16:43:59","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T23:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=28989"},"modified":"2022-10-06T16:47:01","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T23:47:01","slug":"the-burden-of-threshold-concepts-in-preaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-burden-of-threshold-concepts-in-preaching\/","title":{"rendered":"The Burden of Threshold Concepts in Preaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan H.F. Meyer and Ray Land\u2019s \u201cOvercoming Barriers to Student Understanding\u201d introduce the ideas of \u201cthreshold concepts\u201d. Threshold concepts, according to Meyer and Land, are \u201cakin to a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something. It represents a transformed way of understanding, or interpreting, or viewing something without which the learner cannot progress.\u201d[1]<\/a>\u00a0They are at their core: transformative, irreversible, integrative, conceptually bound, and troublesome.<\/p>\n

As I was reading about each characteristic, I couldn\u2019t help but think about the ways in which I think about or hope for each one of these characteristics to be true of my preaching. Perhaps then, the pressure and burden that preachers face is that every time they preach they are seeking to present a threshold concept.<\/p>\n

First, like threshold concepts, preaching should be transformative. As Meyer and Land define it, transformation means that the student experiences \u201ca significant shift in the perception of a subject\u2026 In certain powerful instances\u2026 the shift in perspective may lead to a transformation of personal identity, a reconstruction of subjectivity.\u201d[2]<\/a> At the heart of preaching, what else do preachers seek but for the lives of those listening to be transformed?<\/p>\n

The idea that threshold concepts are irreversible applies to preaching as well. Preachers hope that as they present the God\u2019s Word that not only are their listeners transformed, but that their transformation is one that lasts and is not easily forgotten.<\/p>\n

I would argue that good preaching is integrative in the sense that Meyer and Land argue that threshold concepts ought to be. Like a threshold concept, preaching should help to \u201cexpose the previously hidden interrelatedness of something.\u201d[3]<\/a> Perhaps Christians are more familiar with the term relevant<\/em>, but the idea is the same. If preaching does not help the listener tie an idea about who God is and\/or how God works with their day-to-day life (how they interact with the world, other people, themselves, etc.) than it lacks meaning. In other words, if preaching is not integrative, it is irrelevant.<\/p>\n

Preaching often means explaining language that is either used almost entirely in Christian settings and\/or explaining language that is used by the Biblical authors in a different way than is commonly used now. In this way, preaching, like threshold concepts, are bounded. Some examples might include the uses of \u201cthe flesh\u201d and \u201cthe world\u201d as they take the meaning of self-gratifying motivations in the scriptures rather than the actual flesh of a human or the culmination of existence on this planet respectively. Preachers must navigate, explore, introduce, and perhaps even correct the use of familiar words to create a separately understood set of terminology.<\/p>\n

Lastly, threshold concepts are troublesome. They are troublesome because they are comprised of conceptually difficult knowledge that fight against the obstacles of \u201cmisimpressions from everyday experience, reasonable but mistaken expectations, and the strangeness and complexity of scientists\u2019 views of the matter.\u201d[4]<\/a> \u00a0While Meyer and Land were talking about mathematics and science, I believe the same is true of preaching. Preachers constantly fight against and correct misimpressions and mistaken expectations as well as seek to break down the strange and complex views of theologians, conventions, and\/or philosophers.<\/p>\n

The one difference between threshold concepts and preaching is perhaps in the power that drives the learning. Teachers must rely solely on their own competence and skill to transfer the understanding of threshold concepts to their students. Preachers, while their work is in ensuring that their messages are integrative, bounded, and to some degree troublesome, can rest in knowing that at least the work of transformation and irreversibility is in the hands of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Jan F.H. Meyer and Ray Land, eds.,\u00a0Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding: Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge<\/em>. (New York, Routledge, 2006), pg. 1<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid, 7<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid, 7<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid, 11<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jan H.F. Meyer and Ray Land\u2019s \u201cOvercoming Barriers to Student Understanding\u201d introduce the ideas of \u201cthreshold concepts\u201d. Threshold concepts, according to Meyer and Land, are \u201cakin to a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something. It represents a transformed way of understanding, or interpreting, or viewing something without which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2349],"class_list":["post-28989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-meyer-dlgp01","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28990,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28989\/revisions\/28990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}