The recent discussion of the CFP has prompted me to de-lurk (honestly, I
never intended to be a lurker, just somehow ended up one) to ask a
question that is tangentially related--a question of reading the Bible in
undergrad classes. (I hope this isn't *too* tangential to this list.)
This semester, I taught a general education lit course called Biblical and
Classical Literature. I had expected to run into a Christian bias, and my
expectations were, unfortunately, met. Because I ended up with a small
class (just 10 people), we were able to discuss that bias at length, and
my students are to be commended for the openness of their discussions, as
well as the tremendous amount of respect they showed not only to the texts
but to each other.
One problem, though, surprised me, and I had some difficulty attempting to
overcome it: They displayed a remarkable tendency to read the Hebrew
Bible as if it were a preface to the New Testament. I found myself
confronted with remarks like "Well, Jesus said about this. . ." or "This
changes in the New Testament." While I appreciated their enthusiasm, it
became a near-daily task for me to explain to them that the texts we were
exploring were not written with the intent of explaining Christianity;
they had trouble understanding that Christianity did not yet exist (one
kid even wrote about "Christian converts" in _Genesis_!).
Have other people encountered similar problems in teaching the Bible? How
do you address it?
Beth Crachiolo
University of Iowa
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