I was raised Mormon, and have the faintest tickling in the back of my mind that there was at least an effort to get us to memorize the books, if only to be able to look up specific verses in a hurry. (Yes, they challenged us to race each other looking things up.) Of course mormons have a few more books that the average christian.
I’m not the memorizing type, or the racing type either for that matter, so I didn’t bother.
Catholic, and no.
StG
Raised Southern Baptist, and I don’t believe it was required although somehow I did wind up memorizing them. I remember it being my “party trick” to show what a smart, good little girl I was.
Well, I was…
I very nearly used “party trick” to describe the kids in my Catholic school who memorized the names of the books, in my earlier post. It struck me then (and still strikes me now) as being on a par with memorizing the names of the presidents, the text of the Gettysburg Address, or the value of pi to a certain number of digits – rote memorization, requiring a level of discipline and persistence to master, but of fairly limited actual usefulness.
I suppose that, in the case of memorizing the names of the books in the Bible, it gives you a bit of a head start if you’re going to look up a verse (since you would know roughly where it is: “Is Isaiah before or after Jeremiah?”). But, as far as being a demonstration of one’s actual understanding of Christianity, it really doesn’t do that, IMO.
Memorize, no. We did spend time learning about why the books are in the order that they’re in and why the readings during church are in the order that they’re in.
Well, when you get right down to it, what’s the use of memorizing the alphabet? The only reason you need to know what order the letters are in is when you need to look up stuff that’s been put in alphabetical order to make it easier to look up (and even that’s less useful nowadays when computers can do the looking up for you). Yet what’s one of the first things kids are taught to memorize?
No one would have had to force me to attend regular school. I generally enjoy that. By contrast, by age 12, I actively disbelieves in most of the teachings of my church (except for the “no murdering!” Rule), but was not only required to attend but pressured to participate and to do things like say “I honestly believe that this magic book is the word of God, dictated by Him to it’s mortal transcribers”, which I resented mightily.
Even discovering around the age of 16 that CO G I see girls were just as horny as the girls at my high school but didn’t insist on condoms (because insisting on condoms would have implied that they were having sex, which none were willing to admit) did little to enamor me to church of God in Christ Sunday school.
Also, the things I learned in regular school were useful and (at least in the classes I took), thoughtful discussion was encouraged and nobody was forced to parrot doctrine regardless of his/her genuine beliefs, nor threatened with a beating at least and hell at worst for the sin of independent thought.
I was raised in the “Church of Christ”. Yes, memorization of the books of the Bible was important, as was memorizing a lot of individual verses within the scriptures. Becoming knowledgeable about the Bible was very definitely emphasized – reading, studying, all that fun stuff! With the attitude of “This is God’s word, and it is to be taken literally!”
Raised in a non-evangelical protestant church, which did not seem to go heavy into the scriptural inerrancy or memorization or such like that there.
That said, somewhere along the way I did pick up:
“Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, went to bed with their stockings on!”
(and the above post)
yes I thought so, it shows some deep issues still associated with it. It was a peculiar choice to state that and this together:
Stating such a loaded term as saying your parents forced you, while stating it was not your intent to debate if this practice was …abusive, …
But anyway back tot he topic.
Same here. The old Lutheran insult (and some Lutherans still hold a grudge after 500 years) is that Roman Catholics don’t want their members to read the Bible on their own.
A national survey on religion revealed that only half of Christians can even name the four gospels, so it would follow that a much smaller percentage could name all the books of the Bible.
I learned them, but IIRC it was for the Boy Scouts’ God and Country merit badge, rather than for Sunday School.
+1 I went through 12 years of Catholic school and don’t ever recall having to memorize any books of the Bible.
I was raised Presbyterian, and it wasn’t required, but I remember earning a book called* Turkey Red* by Esther Loewen Vogt which I still have for memorizing the Old Testament book order and a plastic box which I also still have for memorizing the New Testament book order.
I went to Sunday school under protest. If the teacher ever tried to actually get me to do something, I would have laughed in their face.
That said, I think all we ever did was sing and listen to Bible stories.
Grew up in an Evangelical church
Highly encouraged, not required. (I’m not sure how one would require that) This would be for both the books of the Bible and verses (there were prizes & recognition. I was an externally motivated kid with a good memory.)
And later when I taught children, the same - encouraged them, but didn’t require it. (again, not sure how to require it).
It really does save time when you’re looking for a verse if you have a vague idea of where it is without going to table of contents. (It saves even more time if you just know the verse. It also alerts you as to when someone is misusing or misquoting it if you already know it)
The same way you require anything - you tell them to do it and don’t present it as being optional.
Discipline has gotten so lax since torture fell out of favor.
No. I did learn a song to do so, but it was no more a requirement than learning all the states in the US. It was convenient for being able to find a scripture wthat the preacher used. It seemed weird to find out some people still used an alphabetical table of contents.
Though now everyone uses their phone, and the scripture is on the projector, so I doubt it’s even useful for that.
Yes, the books of the Bible and bible verses. I also attended a Christian school where Bible memorization was a normal activity. In fact one year instead of memorizing individual verses of consequence they made us memorize the entire book of Philippians and recite it from memory in front of class.