Teaching the Bible in General Education—2 of 2Posted on August 20, 2013 by Jane S. WebsterMany educators bemoan the fact that students seek the more secure career paths of sciences and professions, often at the expense of the Humanities. Research shows, however, that many students are interested in Religious Studies, especially for the sake of making personal meaning. As a result, students often take courses in Religious Studies as part of their General Education program, and of these courses, Biblical Studies are the most popular. So how do we approach teaching the Bible in order to meet the needs of the discipline, General Education, and student meaning-making?
Why The Simpsons and Mashed Potatoes MatterPosted on July 24, 2013 by Lea SchweitzTrue confession.In a systematic theology class, I may have encouraged a student to use mashed potatoes as a metaphor for the Trinity. In my own defense, it allowed us to talk about the integrity of three separate flavors (salt, butter, potato) that together made up the unified thing we know as mashed potatoes. A concrete, if untraditional, example of three-in-one. Even better, it allowed us to explore other themes like modalism and the economic/imminent Trinity with a working metaphor to anchor an abstract discussion.
Archive as a Context for Teaching the BiblePosted on July 23, 2013 by Gregory CuéllarAxiomatic in my teaching of the Bible is the notion that all texts are produced in a context.For most of my beginning students, such a notion poses little threat to their faith convictions. Even the “more controversial” claim of non-Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch wanes in intensity after a few lectures on redaction history.Their uneasiness, however, lingers not with arguments on a text’s particular historical context but with the claim that all readings of the biblical text are the outcome of historical processes. Said differently, no reading, informed or uninformed, takes place in a social vacuum.