Books
New Book from New Jersey Educator Applies Socratic Questioning to the Four Gospels
Balle Balle Radio™ Entertainment Desk
Frank Heelan, a longtime New Jersey educator, has released "The Way of Jesus God-Man and Savior: A Socratic Approach to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John," published through Christian Faith Publishing, according to the announcement.
The book employs the Socratic method of inquiry-based learning to explore the four Gospels, using structured questioning to guide readers, walking readers through Jesus’s teachings, healings, death and resurrection using a question-and-insight format. The publisher describes the structure as including embedded "Personal Reflections" meant to prompt readers to respond personally to the text rather than simply read it. Heelan says in the announcement that he wrote the book from a conviction that the Socratic method surfaces dimensions of Scripture that conventional study can miss, and that his aim is for readers to engage the Gospels with both intellect and what he describes as spiritual openness.
Heelan’s background is in education more than in publishing. His career included seven years as a History Teacher followed by twenty-five years as a Superintendent of Schools of schools in New York and New Jersey, including a tenure leading the Edison School District. His academic training includes degrees from Fordham University and New York University, a Scripture-focused degree from Maryknoll Seminary, and graduate study at Columbia University, where the announcement states he studied under Donna Shalala, later the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. As an accomplished author, he has previously published: he previously wrote "Stations of the Risen Christ: Resurrection Meditations," a devotional focused on Christ’s post-resurrection appearances.
"The Way of Jesus God-Man and Savior" is aimed at both adult and youth readers, per the announcement, and is positioned as a study tool rather than a straightforward devotional — closer in spirit to a guided seminar than a book meant to be read straight through. It’s available through Christian Faith Publishing’s website, in bookstores, and through Apple Books, Amazon, Google Play and Barnes & Noble.
For Studio CarryOnHarry, the more interesting story here isn’t the book itself but the author: a career educator who spent decades running school districts turning, in retirement, to teaching methodology as a lens for Scripture. That’s a specific and credible angle for a religious study guide, whatever one makes of the results."
Studio CarryOnHarry Perspective
At Studio CarryOnHarry, we see the real intrigue in how a proven classroom technique travels between domains. The Socratic method works in secular settings because it assumes knowledge lives dormant in the student and questioning awakens it—a premise that doesn’t depend on what subject you’re questioning about. That’s genuinely interesting, and it explains why Heelan’s background matters: he’s not importing an untested theory but applying a tool he knows produces engagement.
But the mechanical parallel only goes so far. In a history class, when a teacher asks "What do you notice about this primary source?" the student can point to the text and verify their reasoning against evidence both can examine. With Scripture, the "insight" moment Heelan describes may feel identical in structure, but it involves interpretive and spiritual layers that can’t be cross-checked the same way. The method remains sound; what counts as a successful answer shifts.
The announcement doesn’t clarify how Heelan handles the moment when two readers reach contradictory conclusions through the same Socratic process. In secular classrooms, that’s typically resolved through evidence or logical consistency. In religious study, it might be resolved through tradition, personal conviction, or spiritual discernment—different validation systems entirely. The method alone doesn’t resolve that tension.
The most useful way to think about this may be not as Socratic method being universally portable, but as Heelan recognizing that *engagement itself* might matter more in religious study than in secular study—and that asking questions creates engagement in ways a lectured answer never does, whatever answers readers ultimately reach.
Read more People’s Choice stories on Studio CarryOnHarry. Reporting via Live News Vault.
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Books
Hospital Chaplain John Goodjohn Publishes ‘The Gospel of Scripture,’ a Self-Study Approach to Biblical Text
Balle Balle Radio™ Entertainment Desk
John Goodjohn, a hospital chaplain with a background in pastoral ministry and seminary instruction, has published "The Gospel of Scripture," a book that sets out to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ using the Bible’s own text as the primary interpretive tool, according to the announcement. The book is subtitled "The Gospel of Jesus Christ as Defined and Explained in the Bible, by the Bible Itself," and is published through Page Publishing.
The book’s premise, as described in the announcement, is that readers can study Scripture directly, without relying on denominational commentary or secondary interpretive frameworks, to understand what it says on its own terms. Goodjohn frames this as an alternative to conventional devotional literature and study guides.
Goodjohn’s path to the project is unusual for religious publishing. According to the announcement, his vocations span university administration, organic farming, competitive figure skating, long-distance sailing, roller-disco management in the Hamptons, and business ownership, in addition to his pastoral and academic work. He has described himself as having once been an outsider to organized Christianity before dedicating himself to study of the Bible’s teachings apart from what he characterizes as the "thousands of differing, often contradictory interpretations" found across modern religious practice.
"My journey from skepticism about organized Christianity to a life grounded solely in biblical teaching has convinced me that readers hunger for authenticity," Goodjohn said in the announcement. "This book exists to help people encounter the Gospel through Scripture’s own voice, free from the complications of external influence."
The idea of returning to Scripture’s own language as a corrective to accumulated tradition and interpretation has precedent in Christian publishing — Brennan Manning’s "The Ragamuffin Gospel," first published in 1990, built a similar case around God’s love and grace stripped of religious performance, and remains widely read decades later. Goodjohn’s book positions itself in that same lineage of works arguing that direct engagement with the text, rather than inherited interpretation, is where readers will find clarity.
"The Gospel of Scripture" is available through Page Publishing’s website, as well as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, and the Apple iTunes Store.
Studio CarryOnHarry will leave it to readers to judge whether a text can ever be studied entirely free of interpretation, but the author’s own winding path to this project is a story in itself.
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Balle Balle Radio™ Entertainment Desk
John Goodjohn, a hospital chaplain with a background in pastoral ministry and seminary teaching, has released "The Gospel of Scripture," a book that sets out to examine what the Bible says about the Gospel of Jesus Christ using Scripture alone, without relying on outside commentary or denominational interpretation. The book, published through Page Publishing, is available in bookstores and through major online retailers including Amazon, Apple’s iTunes Store, Google Play and Barnes & Noble.
The book’s full title, "The Gospel of Scripture: The Gospel of Jesus Christ as Defined and Explained in the Bible, by the Bible Itself," signals its central method: allowing Scripture to explain itself, avoiding the lens of external interpretive materials. According to the announcement, Goodjohn intends the book as a tool for self-study, aimed at readers who want to work through Scripture’s own language directly rather than through devotionals or study guides built around a particular tradition.
Goodjohn’s path to writing it is unusual for religious publishing. Before entering pastoral work, he held jobs in competitive figure skating, roller-disco management in the Hamptons, organic farming, long-distance sailing and business ownership, according to the announcement. He has also worked in university administration and taught at Bible college and seminary level. By his own account, he was once an outsider to organized Christianity, and that distance is what the book draws on: an attempt to approach the text without inherited assumptions about what it’s supposed to say.
"My journey from skepticism about organized Christianity to a life grounded solely in biblical teaching has convinced me that readers hunger for authenticity," Goodjohn said in the announcement. "This book exists to help people encounter the Gospel through Scripture’s own voice, free from the complications of external influence."
The idea of returning to Scripture’s own internal logic, rather than accumulated interpretation, places Goodjohn’s book in a tradition that runs through much of Protestant devotional writing, from Jerry Bridges’ work on grace and sanctification to Brennan Manning’s "The Ragamuffin Gospel." What distinguishes Goodjohn’s approach, per the publisher’s description, is the explicit method: using the Bible to explain the Bible, with as little external framework as the author could manage.
For Studio CarryOnHarry, the more interesting story here isn’t the book’s theology but the author’s path to it — a chaplain who spent decades in roller-disco management and long-distance sailing before turning to seminary teaching is a biography worth knowing more about on its own terms.
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