Abstract:
This qualitative study was positioned within an emerging scientific field concerned with
the interaction between biblical text and the psychological profile of the preacher. The
theoretical framework was provided by the sensing, intuition, feeling and thinking (SIFT)
approach to biblical hermeneutics, an approach rooted in reader-perspective hermeneutical
theory and in Jungian psychological type theory that explores the distinctive readings of
sensing perception and intuitive perception, and the distinctive readings of thinking
evaluation and feeling evaluation. The empirical methodology was provided by developing
a research tradition concerned with applying the SIFT approach to biblical text. In the
present study, a group of 17 Anglican clergy were invited to work in psychological typealike
groups to explore two of the biblical passages identified by Year B of the Revised
Common Lectionary for the Feast of Christ the King. Dividing into three workshops,
according to their preferences for sensing and intuition, the clergy explored Psalm 93.
Dividing into three workshops, according to their preferences for thinking and feeling, the
clergy explored John 18:33–37. The rich data gathered from these workshops supported the
hypothesis that biblical interpretation and preaching may be shaped by the reader’s
psychological type preference and suggested that the passages of scripture proposed for
the Feast of Christ the King may be a joy for intuitive thinking types, but a nightmare for
sensing feeling types.
Contribution: Situated within the reader perspective approach to biblical hermeneutics, the
SIFT method is concerned with identifying the influence of the psychological type of the reader
in shaping the interpretation of text. Employing this method, the present study contributes to
the fields of homiletics and hermeneutics by demonstrating how some readers (sensing types)
may struggle more than others (intuitive types) to interpret the scripture readings proposed by the lectionary for the Feast of Christ the King.
