CONGREGATIONAL LIFE

The Bible is a rich cultural symbol and an excellent source for provocative questions as to how we should or should not live our lives.

Reasons for offering this irregular series of single discussions on topics in the Bible include:

1) religious liberals need to reclaim the Bible for themselves rather than allowing more conservative denominations to assert that it belongs to themselves alone

2) we cannot have a meaningful conversation with religious conservatives unless we can minimally speak their language

3) we cannot truly understand what we oppose in a fundamentalist belief system unless we go beyond assumptions, kneejerk opposition, and partial childhood memories and understand what the Bible actually does say and stand for

4) we might be surprised at the beauty and good sense we can find in the Bible. We will certainly be provoked to deeper conversation and thought by the tales told there

5) how can we understand the editorial and funny page comics if we are unfamiliar with the biblical allusions to which many of them refer?

To these ends, we often focus on discussing a single topic or thought in the Bible. We read actual words/episodes slowly and perhaps in several translations as if we had never seen the text before, in order to break through any possible haze of familiarity with the actual text (and baggage). While we read verse by verse, we are not taking the verse out of its context for a purpose (prooftexting), but trying to understand it within the whole story, chapter and book.

Each session will stand alone, folks can attend one or all of the sessions. No registration – drop in is fine. Materials are available before and after the class is held. If folks bring goodies, all the better.

Topics might include:

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