-
Jesus Was a Literature Professor
Literature professors are a determined lot. Our goal is to deepen our students’ engagement with the text at hand. We desperately want them to dive for the pearls deep below the surface and come up triumphant, gasping for air and eager to go deeper next time. I am aware that literature professors weren’t a thing in Jesus’ time. Jewish students who sat under their rabbis studied the Old Testament (though not as Christians today understand it.) They became rabbis and scribes, teaching what they learned to the next generation. And then came Jesus. He understood all the old texts and the traditional ways of reading them. But the way he…
-
The Great Reversal is Coming!
Reversal is everywhere in the Bible. That the Bible is a revolutionary document probably comes as a surprise to some because these days it is commonly viewed as an old-fashioned narrative that is out of date. But the philosophical and literary weight the Bible pulls influences so many current arenas, not the least of which is how we relate our personal stories. To give some historical perspective, the pre-biblical narrative of the day was a circular one. Like the snake devouring its own tail, the pagan narratives were stories of endless cycles that never arrive, merely circle back around to its origin over and over. Reincarnation is an example of…
Healing Through Art & Words
