A Hermeneutical Model Based on the First Epistle of John

The purpose of this senior project is to give the present student an opportunity to synthesize three years of seminary-level training in the area of hermeneutics, with an eye to its operation in the pastoral setting. The project therefore seeks to present a model, directed to the local pastor, of how a biblical book can be prepared for an expositional preaching series. The model endorses three stages of preparation study thought by the student to be essential to a quality pulpit ministry. The stages are history, exegesis and theology. Each stage is contained within a major chapter which endeavors to introduce the topic, present the study data itself and relate it to the modern pastoral setting by means of a summary and/or an evaluation of the tools and methods used. In this way it is hoped that, on the one hand, the student will crystallize for himself the training in hermeneutics he has saught to acquire, while on the other hand, present to the reader a stimulus toward furthering the quality of his own sermonic preparations