Day Fourteen: The Bible and the Formation of the Gospels, Part Two

                “How do you tell someone good news?” My students spend a few moments responding to the question. Every year I ask myself how they will respond. Their context changes. Of course, when I was young, the only people I knew were other kids on my block, so sharing the good news that I got a new Thundercats toy involved mostly me running to my friend Omar’s house, toy in tote, and we proceeded to play for the rest of the day. As I got older, the context changed. As a teenager I had to call my friends to tell them whatever news I had. As I was starting college, e-mail replaced the phone; the novelty of writing a note on the computer and sending it, while probably not as efficient as calling, became the new context. My students now have the benefit of texting or snapchatting or whatever other application is popular this year. I know that next year it will change again. But the heart of all forms of communication is the same: we just want to share news with each other. The Gospel is the “Good News”, and, when it was first shared it was disseminated by word of mouth, then it was written down, and now it is spoken, or filmed, or “messaged” to others. The methods of Gospel promulgation vary and some argue one way or another is superior, but the heart of the Gospel message remains the same: we are called to Love and to be Loved and Jesus is the one who can show us what that means.

St. Augustine Chapel at the Augustine Institute in Greewood Village, Colorado. After his own conversion, St. Augustine used his own writing and oratorical skills to spread the "Good News" of Jesus. He is regarded, to this day, as one of the most influential Christian thinkers of all time. (photo. P. Smith)

Part of my goal as a teacher is, first, to understand the context in which my students understand how “Good News” is shared, and, second, to make sure my students hear that “Good News”. The metacognitive process of the question I am asking them begins to activate their processing skills. If my students are thinking of how they share good news, they may begin to think of the Gospel Tradition within the context of their modern culture. The actual process of synthesizing the two, creating an internal dialogue, if you will, scaffolds the Gospel message for them. At least, that is the theory.