How to Read the Bible

Link to my weblog

For information about getting started on setting up a website,

Website Space to blog and curate resources you want to share (final project)

1. 1. Set-up instructions for beginners: If you’ve never managed you own website or blogged, I suggest you set up an account at Wordpress.com.  Getting an account is simple and straightforward.  (Be sure it is WordPress.com, not WordPress.org.)  The basic, free account will provide what you need. If you already have your own site, I suggest creating a subspace within it, or creating a separate one devoted to this course.  (If you have experience managing a site, you can skip the remaining set-up instructions, just make sure you have the required features listed below.)
   2. Helpful resources from Wordpress.com to get started:
      1. WpBeginner-web-builder comparisons https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-choose-the-best-website-builder/
      2. WpBeginner-How to Build a website in 2019: https://www.wpbeginner.com/guides/
   3. If you want to try something that is more advanced but still user-friendly, you can try Wix.com. It also has an option for a free account, and its design features are more sophisticated than WordPress.  It also has this amazing feature called ADI—Advanced Intelligent Design.  If you choose that option, it asks you a few simple questions about your needs and preferences, and after a few seconds it conjures a beautifully designed space, one you can still customize, but a lot of work will have already been done for you.  If you’re want more design freedom and options, you can choose a template and go from there.  (I have a WordPress account, but have opened an account at Wix account, which I plan to use for this class.)
   4. There are other website builders out there, and several of them offer free accounts. A free account limits the number of features you have to work with and may also show ads, but it will suffice as long as it has the required features (see below).  If you choose to upgrade, you’ll pay a subscription price (based on my research the lowest I found was $8/mo at Weebly.com.), but a paid plan gets you more features and your own domain name (e.g. pamelaeisenbaum.com)
   5. If you do a search for “web builders” lots of options will come up. (A recent review of the “top ten” from PC Magazine can be found at https://www.pcmag.com/roundup/334639/the-best-website-builders )  If you find one you like better, feel free to use it, but it must have the following features:
      • A blog
      • Ability to upload or link to photos and videos

• • • Integrate with at least one social media site (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, whatever is your preference). You will need some way to notify others when you post something.

• • • Ability for readers of your blog to comment.
    • Not required but highly desired: some sort of “gallery” space where you can collect links to images, resources related to the topic of this class and/or related specifically to something you wrote about, other blogs or news stories.

6. There are also lots of sites that provide instructions and tips for website creation and blogging – just do a search and see what you find.

 

Criteria for evaluation

1. 1. Reflects substantive learning from the class
   2. Includes required items indicated each week.
   3. Organization and Presentation. Although design features are limited with a free account, you can still work to make your site attractive and user friendly to your audience.
   4. Quality of any written work and ability to communicate your learning to others outside the class.
   5. Quality of interpretive work on specific biblical texts. There must be at least four biblical texts (in addition to the ones required); minimally all of them should include a written piece of 300-500 words in which you offer your “take” on the text.  That means performing a thoughtful, critical reading where you provide your reader with an interpretation of the text that involves analysis and where you provide reasons to support your reading. (You can find an example of the kind of thing I'm looking for posted on my blog as "Loaves and Fishes")

Instructor:  Pamela Eisenbaum

Course Synopsis

This course has two closely related foci:  The first is to introduce students to the overwhelming impact the Bible has had, not only on the religious communities and individuals who hold it dear, but also on politics, culture (understood broadly), and the arts.  Although there are some readings that attend to the landscape of Bible reading in the distant past, the primary focus is on the Bible in the American context.  The second goal of the course is to enable students to become thoughtful interpreters of the Bible,--to read with self-awareness, heightened attention, a critical eye, creativity, and to be better informed about the history of interpretation and what resources are available to you to find out more.

For more information about the course, please see "

Course Synopsis

This course has two closely related foci:  The first is to introduce students to the overwhelming impact the Bible has had, not only on the religious communities and individuals who hold it dear, but also on politics, culture (understood broadly), and the arts.  Although there are some readings that attend to the landscape of Bible reading in the distant past, the primary focus is on the Bible in the American context.  The second goal of the course is to enable students to become thoughtful interpreters of the Bible,--to read with self-awareness, heightened attention, a critical eye, creativity, and to be better informed about the history of interpretation and what resources are available to you to find out more.

Course Plan

For each week's activities, I use four categories, which are labeled READing, THINKing, DOing, and DIY. The first is obvious.  THINKing serves two purposes: some questions are intended to be guiding questions you keep in mind before, during, and after doing the reading that week, and some are intended jumpstart your own thinking in liight of the week's reading.  DOing refers to anything you are required to do in addition to the reading.  DIY refers sometimes to recommendations for working on things related closely to the course but are not required, and some are intended to keep you progressively working on your curation assignment, which is a kind of genre mixed of portforlio, website, multimedia blog, etc.  Since I am assuming most of us do not have advanced skills in this area, I assume it will take us longer to have it ready by end of term than others.  (I include myself, because I intend to do the same project along with you for my own learning experience. 

Evaluation of your performance in this class is dependent on three things:

1. Participation (reading, discussion, other weekly activities) 30%
2. Two 2-page summaries of readings 30%
3. The quality of your website/blogging/curation space. 40%

Course Objectives

1. How To Read the Bible is categorized in the curriculum as Sacred Texts (TX).  In this area, the primary degree learning goals are to demonstrate an informed understanding of sacred texts as historically- situated; utilize various methodologies for responsible interpretation of these texts to contemporary audiences.
2. As mentioned in the course synopsis, this class is designed to develop your potential to become disciplined, critical, and sophisticated interpreters. This class is not about mastering and exegeting texts by mechanically following scholarly methods, such as redaction criticism or rhetorical criticism.  (If you have had the introductory courses, you probably heard of these methods. If not, you don’t need to worry about it—you will get a general introduction to it in Kugel’s book.)  But you will not write any papers using a scholarly method, not by necessity anyway.   Frankly, any well-executed interpretation requires you to be a careful reader who pays attention to nuances, ambiguities, and one who possesses awareness of the questions you as reader bring to the text.  Such skills transcend any particular method.  In fact, When you become better Bible readers, you become better readers in general, and that is a very valuable skill.
3. In conjunction with the qualities mentioned in #2, the course means to enliven your imagination and inspire you to pursue creative and surprising interpretations. In this way the Bible can be a living text as well as a traditional one.
4. To heighten awareness of the perspectival dimension of interpretation
5. To help you move beyond anecdotal evidence and be better informed about what studies have taught us about biblical practices—mostly practices by American Christians, but also Jews or those without any affiliation.
6. To learn how to use a personal website and some of its typical components: blogging, using media, collecting resources, and organizing this material in a user friendly way.
7. To learn or improve skills at writing for different purposes and to different audiences and in different mediums.
8. To produce an artifact that reflects you learning in this class and that is shareable with fellow students, friends, and family in a way an academic paper would not be. Depending on the quality and how much you get the word out, it’s possible what you produce on your site will be read by more people than anything you have ever written before.

Readings

Books you need to buy

• Peter Enns, How the Bible Actually Works: In Which I Explain How An Ancient, Ambiguous, and Diverse Book Leads Us to Wisdom Rather Than Answers—and Why That’s Great News (HarperOne, 2019) ISBN-13:978-0062686749
• Peter Gomes, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What’s so Good About the Good News? (HarperOne, 2008)
• James Kugel, How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture Then and Now (Free Press, 2008) ISBN-13: 978-0743235877

Note: I'm sorry the books are not available as e-books in Iliff's library, but they are available to buy as e-books.  You can also buy a print copy online.

A suggestion if you need some quick Bible basics:

• If you feel like you need a little remedial work: Kristin Swenson, Making Sense of the Most Talked about Book of All Time (Harper Perennial, 2011). No readings from this book will be assigned.

Other Books

Several readings will be drawn from sources available electronically, either from Iliff’s online library resources or through open-access websites.  More than one reading is drawn from the list below. This readings are typically listed by author and/or a shortened title.

• Philip Goff (ed), The Bible in American Life (Oxford, 2017) ISBN-13: 978-0190468927.  May be accessed through Oxford Biblical Studies Online

• James S. Bielo (ed.), The Social Life of Scriptures: Cross-cultural Perspectives on Biblicism (Signifying on Scriptures; Rutgers, 2007) ISBN-13: 978-0813546063 The E-book may be accessed through ProQuest E-book central.
• Vincent L. Wimbush, White Man’s Magic: Scripturalization as Slavery (Oxford, 2012).  The E-book may be accessed through Oxford Scholarship Online.

Individual essays and articles

Essays and articles from other sources will be listed with bibliographic information in the week they are assigned.

Please note...

When readings are readily available online through Iliff's electronic resources, I often do not provide (or cannot provide without violating copyright) a PDF or a link, though I do name the database in which you can find it.  Micah Saxton and his colleagues have done great work acquiring and organizing databases and e-book collections.  I realize obtaining the reading yourself may require a couple more minutes of your time, but there is a great payoff: you will become more comfortable using these resources, so that when you need to do research or find sources for one of your assignments, your experience will enable greater comfort and facility with using our electronic resources.

Course Synopsis

This course has two closely related foci:  The first is to introduce students to the overwhelming impact the Bible has had, not only on the religious communities and individuals who hold it dear, but also on politics, culture (understood broadly), and the arts.  Although there are some readings that attend to the landscape of Bible reading in the distant past, the primary focus is on the Bible in the American context.  The second goal of the course is to enable students to become thoughtful interpreters of the Bible,--to read with self-awareness, heightened attention, a critical eye, creativity, and to be better informed about the history of interpretation and what resources are available to you to find out more.

Course Plan

For each week's activities, I use four categories, which are labeled READing, THINKing, DOing, and DIY. The first is obvious.  THINKing serves two purposes: some questions are intended to be guiding questions you keep in mind before, during, and after doing the reading that week, and some are intended jumpstart your own thinking in liight of the week's reading.  DOing refers to anything you are required to do in addition to the reading.  DIY refers sometimes to recommendations for working on things related closely to the course but are not required, and some are intended to keep you progressively working on your curation assignment, which is a kind of genre mixed of portforlio, website, multimedia blog, etc.  Since I am assuming most of us do not have advanced skills in this area, I assume it will take us longer to have it ready by end of term than others.  (I include myself, because I intend to do the same project along with you for my own learning experience. 

Evaluation of your performance in this class is dependent on three things:

1. Participation (reading, discussion, other weekly activities) 30%
2. Two 2-page summaries of readings 30%
3. The quality of your website/blogging/curation space. 40%

Course Objectives

1. How To Read the Bible is categorized in the curriculum as Sacred Texts (TX).  In this area, the primary degree learning goals are to demonstrate an informed understanding of sacred texts as historically- situated; utilize various methodologies for responsible interpretation of these texts to contemporary audiences.
2. As mentioned in the course synopsis, this class is designed to develop your potential to become disciplined, critical, and sophisticated interpreters. This class is not about mastering and exegeting texts by mechanically following scholarly methods, such as redaction criticism or rhetorical criticism.  (If you have had the introductory courses, you probably heard of these methods. If not, you don’t need to worry about it—you will get a general introduction to it in Kugel’s book.)  But you will not write any papers using a scholarly method, not by necessity anyway.   Frankly, any well-executed interpretation requires you to be a careful reader who pays attention to nuances, ambiguities, and one who possesses awareness of the questions you as reader bring to the text.  Such skills transcend any particular method.  In fact, When you become better Bible readers, you become better readers in general, and that is a very valuable skill.
3. In conjunction with the qualities mentioned in #2, the course means to enliven your imagination and inspire you to pursue creative and surprising interpretations. In this way the Bible can be a living text as well as a traditional one.
4. To heighten awareness of the perspectival dimension of interpretation
5. To help you move beyond anecdotal evidence and be better informed about what studies have taught us about biblical practices—mostly practices by American Christians, but also Jews or those without any affiliation.
6. To learn how to use a personal website and some of its typical components: blogging, using media, collecting resources, and organizing this material in a user friendly way.
7. To learn or improve skills at writing for different purposes and to different audiences and in different mediums.
8. To produce an artifact that reflects you learning in this class and that is shareable with fellow students, friends, and family in a way an academic paper would not be. Depending on the quality and how much you get the word out, it’s possible what you produce on your site will be read by more people than anything you have ever written before.

Books you need to buy

• Peter Enns, How the Bible Actually Works: In Which I Explain How An Ancient, Ambiguous, and Diverse Book Leads Us to Wisdom Rather Than Answers—and Why That’s Great News (HarperOne, 2019) ISBN-13:978-0062686749
• Peter Gomes, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What’s so Good About the Good News? (HarperOne, 2008)
• James Kugel, How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture Then and Now (Free Press, 2008) ISBN-13:978-0743235877

A suggestion if you need some quick Bible basics:

• If you feel like you need a little remedial work: Kristin Swenson, Making Sense of the Most Talked about Book of All Time (Harper Perennial, 2011). No readings from this book will be assigned.

Evaluation of your performance in this class is dependent on three things:

1. Participation (reading, discussion, other weekly activities) 30%
2. Two 2-page summaries of readings 30%
3. The quality of your website/blogging/curation space. 40%