Dr. James F. McGrath
This class will survey the Biblical literature (questions of who, what, when and where). In addition, we will focus on the interpretation of different genres (i.e. types of literature), using as examples specific biblical books and passages that will be the focus of attention in greater detail. Additional course information and resources can be found through http://blackboard.butler.edu or via the class home page at http://blue.butler.edu/~jfmcgrat/bible/ .
Borg, Marcus, Reading the Bible Again for the First Time, San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2002.
The Bible (the version recommended is the New Revised Standard Version, released by Oxford University Press - either The Access Bible or The New Oxford Annotated Bible, both of which include many helpful notes by scholars. Other versions may be supplemented, but only after consultation with the professor. Students are responsible for reading the introductory essays and the notes accompanying assigned readings).
An interactive Bible textbook can be accessed at http://blue.butler.edu/~jfmcgrat/Interactive/Bible/
Also very useful (but not required): A One-Volume Academic Bible Commentary (Harper Collins or Oxford)
Grades
(for Dr. McGrath’s grading scale see his
home
page):
|
10% |
|
|
Research proposal (Due September 17th): |
20% |
|
Essay (Due November 19th): |
30% |
|
Final exam (December 17th at 1pm): |
40% |
Assignments
Final Examination: The final exam will relate to the topics covered in class. There will be a number of essay-type questions from which you will choose two to answer.
Essay: The term paper for this class will consist of an essay (around 6-10 pages) in which you will investigate a subject of your choice related to the Bible. In order to facilitate this research, you will first propose a topic, identify relevant academic resources which you will compile in a bibliography, and provide an outline of your paper. This research proposal will be graded separately from the essay for which it provides the foundation. Students who provide a draft of parts of the essay itself at this stage will be provided with feedback and suggestions.
Thinking assignments:
#1 The Bible, Translation and Interpretation: Read Genesis 1-3 in at least three different translations (see web page for more details). What is the relationship between the creation story in Genesis 1 and that in Genesis 2-3? Did different translations give different impressions on matters such as what kind of literature these stories are, and whether there is one creation story or two?
#2 The Bible and Science: How do the creation stories in Genesis 1-3 relate to the findings of modern science, in particular biology and cosmology?
#3 The Bible and Archaeology: Based on the archaeological evidence available, what can we conclude about how the people known as the Israelites came to be in the land of Canaan?
#4 The Bible and Law: How do the Ten Commandments relate to the specifics of American law and society (in particular, but not necessarily limited to, the U.S. Constitution including the First Amendment)?
#5 The Bible and Childhood: How is it different reading the stories of David and Goliath and/or Samson and Delilah as an adult? What details either were left out or did you not notice when hearing the story as a child? Reflect on your different perceptions of violent and sexual elements of the stories, as well as any others you may feel are relevant. (If you were not exposed to these stories as a child, simply note your reaction to them reading them as an adult for the first time, and whether they confirmed or challenged your assumptions about what is in the Bible.)
#6 The Bible and Upheaval: How did the experience of the Babylonian exile change and shape the beliefs and practices of Judaism from that time onward?
#7 The Bible and Worship/Prayer: Of the psalms read for class, which would you feel comfortable singing/praying today, and which not?
#8 The Bible and Suffering: Does the Book of Job provide an answer to the perennial problem of why bad things happen to good people?
#9 The Bible as Canon: Find out what you can about the history behind the section of the Bible known as the Apocrypha being either included in, or excluded from, some particular group’s canon of the Bible.
#10 The Bible and Society: Evaluate the use of the Bible in McKibben’s article “The Christian Paradox: How A Faithful Nation Gets Jesus Wrong” in Harper’s magazine and in at least one example from recent political discourse. How do his points relate to the emphases in the Book of Amos?
#11 The Bible and Prophecy: Compare and contrast the figures of Jeremiah and Ezekiel in terms of their historical and geographical settings, their emphases, and other such features.
#12 The Bible and Christology: Look into the origins and development of the idea of Jesus' pre-existence in early Christian literature.
#13 The Bible and History: What problems would a historian have fitting together the details in Matthew and Luke’s infancy narratives?
#14 The Bible and History: What features of the Gospel of John make it impossible for most historians to us this Gospel as a source of knowledge about the historical figure of Jesus?
#15 What is the "new perspective on Paul" and how has it proposed a rethinking of what Paul meant by salvation "apart from works of the Law"?
#16 The Bible and Diversity: How do James’ and Paul’s views on faith and works relate to one another?
#17 The Bible and Pseudepigraphy: Why do most scholars regard the book of Daniel as having been written in light of the events it describes, in the time of the Maccabean revolt, rather than by a historical figure Daniel during the Babylonian and Persian eras?
#18 The Bible and Empire: What details in the Book of Revelation represent a critical perspective on the Roman Empire as it existed in the author’s time?
#19 The Bible and Ethics: Research and evaluate how the Bible is used by those on both sides of current debates about homosexuality.
USEFUL BOOKS
In
religion, there is a far greater range of non-academic books available than in
the case of pharmacy, biology or Shakespeare. Recognizing useful resources thus
has unique pitfalls. In general, books by the following publishers will tend to
be of some academic value: T&T Clark, Fortress, Eerdmans, Doubleday,
Westminster John Knox, Harper Collins. For more specific advice, please consult
with the professor. Below a list of useful general books relating to the Bible
is provided. Since there is no single textbook that will provide both general
information about the Bible and specific information about the passages we are
studying, students will need to learn to do their own reading and research to
gather information that supplements information provided in class.
*Barton,
John (editor), The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Interpretation,
Cambridge University Press, 1998. [Highly recommended introduction to the study
of the Bible, arranged by genre and by method]
Brown,
Raymond E., Responses to 101 Questions on the Bible, Mahwah: Paulist,
1990.
Davis,
Kenneth C., Don’t Know Much About the Bible,
Hiers,
Richard H., The Trinity Guide to the Bible,
Hughes,
Gerald and Stephen Travis, Harper’s Introduction to the Bible,
Anderson, Bernhard W., The Living World of the Old Testament [4th
edition], Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1988. [A classic survey of the
Hebrew Bible, with pictures. Very readable and accessible]
Russell, D. S., Between the Testaments,
Kraft, Robert A. and George W. E. Nickelsburg (editors), Early Judaism
and Its Modern Interpreters,
VanderKam, James C., An Introduction to Early Judaism,
Brown,
Raymond E., An Introduction to the New Testament,
Green,
Joel B., Hearing the New Testament,
Johnson,
Luke T., The Writings of the New Testament: An Interpretation,
Rowland,
Christopher, Christian Origins,
Fox,
Lüdemann,
Gerd, The Unholy in Holy Scripture: The Dark Side of the Bible,
Wilson,
Ian, The Bible Is History,
*Fee, Gordon D. and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its
Worth [2nd edition],
Johnson, Marshall D., Making Sense
of the Bible,
McKenzie, Steven L. and Stephen R. Haynes, To Each Its Own Meaning: An
Introduction to Biblical Criticisms and their Application,
Bruce, F. F., The Canon of Scripture, Glasgow: Chapter House,
1988.
Metzger,
Bruce M., The Canon of the New Testament,
Also
important are commentaries, about which more will be said in class. Among
the series of commentaries that are reliable and of a serious academic level,
without being overly technical, are: The Anchor Bible, New Century Bible
Commentary. Also worth consulting are Word Biblical Commentary and the
International Critical Commentary, but there use the original languages and will
thus be somewhat more daunting for students.
The
following points represent key things that will be looked for in all your
work:
1)
Intellectual honesty: All written work must be your own. If you use
someone else's words, there must be quotation marks and a footnote indicating
this (see the links I have provided on my home page at http://blue.butler.edu/~jfmcgrat/
or http://religion.sytes.net). Simply
changing a few words is not good enough. You must put ideas in your own words;
and even then, if the idea is someone else's, you must still provide a footnote
or other reference so as to give credit where credit is due. If you plagiarize
you will fail the class, and the dean of student services as well as the dean of
your college will be informed so that there will a record of the offense, in
order that it may be clear whether you are a repeat offender. If you do not
adequately reference your sources you will either fail, or be required to redo
the paper, or at the very least get a lower grade than you might otherwise have
received on that assignment, depending on the nature and severity of the case.
Intellectual honesty is of more fundamental importance than anything you will
learn by taking this class.
2)
Critical thinking: How you think (and that you think) is
infinitely more important to me than what you think. You will gain no
points by agreeing with me, and lose none by disagreeing. What matters is how
you argue your case, and that you examine critically not only the views of
others, but also your own views. Coupled with the need for critical thinking is
a need for:
3)
Fairness: You must understand the views of others, even if you disagree
with them. Treat their views the way you would like your own viewpoints to be
treated. Again, whether you agree or disagree with an author's viewpoint is
completely up to you. But you must understand what he or she says, and not
merely in a superficial manner. Recent (postmodern) thought may emphasize that
none of us can claim to be objective: we all have a viewpoint, and we all have
assumptions and biases. But this need not mean that we are incapable of
interacting with the views of others in a manner that is fair.
4)
Breadth of reading, reflection, and interaction with scholarly writings:
Your ability to evaluate different viewpoints and then draw your own conclusions
will make the difference between B+ work and A work. A university essay is not
simply your reflections. Rather than offer your own opinions (which you
may well have had prior to taking this course), you must find out what relevant
scholars and experts have to say, and draw your own conclusions based on
the evidence. To simply reference one or two web pages will not be adequate,
unless you have made use of books and have learned to distinguish scholarly
material on the web from opinions offered without sufficient scholarly argument
or citation of evidence. The best papers will combine research with creativity
and originality. Please also note that, although I have sought to make available
to you the highest quality of online resources via the course web page, online
reading is rarely if ever sufficient for writing a college-level paper, even
a short one. Unless you are certain you have access to complete online articles
and books by authors who deal with topics in a scholarly manner, you should use
web-based resources with caution.
5)
Although it should not be necessary to specify this, all work submitted must be typed
and must be in appropriate English (i.e. correct spelling and
punctuation, no IM abbreviations). What you are trying to say may be correct and
even important, but it will not count for much if your ideas are not
communicated clearly and intelligibly, since a professor can only evaluate how
much you have understood based on what you write. A good idea might be to have a
study partner or other individual who can proofread your work, in some form of
reciprocal arrangement. Getting critical feedback prior to handing work in will
also very likely contribute to you receiving a higher grade.
It is the policy and practice of Butler University to make reasonable accommodations for students with properly documented disabilities. Written notification from Student Disability Services is required. If you are eligible to receive an accommodation and would like to request it for this course, please discuss it with me and allow one week advance notice. Otherwise, it is not guaranteed that the accommodation can be received on a timely basis. Students who have questions about Student Disability Services or who have, or think they may have, a disability (psychiatric, attentional, learning, vision, hearing, physical, medical, etc.) are invited to contact Student Disability Services for a confidential discussion in Jordan Hall 136 or by phone at extension 9308.
Listen,
however, to what CEOs from
You probably know the famous saying, “Give a person a fish and you have fed him or her for a day; teach a person how to fish and you have fed them for life.” A liberal arts education aims at teaching students not just important general knowledge, but teaching them how to learn. The Bible provides a wonderful area in which to do precisely that. On the one hand, the Bible is of profound religious and existential importance to many students, and so if they can learn to think critically about it, then thinking critically about more mundane topics less central to their worldview will seem relatively easy and painless by comparison. The Bible is also a great place to learn to use a range of tools from various academic disciplines, since its contents can be approached via historical, archaeological, literary, social-scientific, and a vast range of other perspectives.
In
any given religion classroom at
[T]he only “objective” knowledge we possess is the knowledge that comes from a community of people looking at a subject and debating their observations within a consensual framework of procedural rules. I know of no field, from science to religion, where what we regard as objective knowledge did not emerge from long and complex communal discourse that continues to this day…
The firmest foundation of all our knowledge is the community of truth itself. This community can never offer us ultimate certainty – not because its process is flawed but because certainty is beyond the grasp of finite hearts and minds. Yet this community can do much to rescue us from ignorance, bias, and self-deception if we are willing to submit our assumptions, our observations, our theories – indeed, ourselves – to its scrutiny.[2]
The Bible (RL202) does not only provide an opportunity to learn the varied approaches to knowledge that are crucial to a liberal arts education, and to becoming a lifelong learner on a trajectory towards a successful future. It is also an opportunity to begin to develop the habit of respectful dialogue with others with whom we disagree. It is only such encounter with different viewpoints that can keep us honest. It has been said that one never truly believes something until one has listened to the arguments of the other side. The academic study of the Bible thus provides students with an opportunity to reflect on, and work out for themselves, what they truly believe.
[1] Jean C. Wyer, “Accounting Education: Change Where You Might Least Expect It,” Change Jan.-Feb. 1993, pp.15-17 [quoted in Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach (San Francisco: Josey-Bass, 1998) p.177.
[2] Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach (San Francisco: Josey-Bass, 1998) p.104.
LINK TO FIRST PAGE OF BIBLE CLASS NOTES ON-LINE