Earlham School of Religion
228 College Avenue, Richmond, IN 47374 • 1-800-432-1ESR
Biblical Studies
- B-101S INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT
- The goal of this course is to provide the student with an introduction to
the history and literature of ancient Israel. The student will read an
introduction to the Hebrew Bible and the history of ancient Israel. The
class periods will focus on issues and data not easily available in the
reading.
- 3 semester hours.
- B-102 AND B-102 EAC INTRODUCTION TO NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY AND LITERATURE
- This course offers a survey of the 27 writings that compose the New Testament
canon. We will study each of these writings with attention to their literary
form and content, their origins in the life of early Christian communities,
and their meanings for readers today. Introduction to New Testament History
and Literature may be taken in a traditional classroom format (B-102) or
online (B-102EAC).
- 3 semester hours.
- B-115 NEW TESTAMENT GREEK I
- This course begins an introduction to the basic elements of New Testament Greek, with an emphasis on
vocabulary, the noun system, and indicative verbs. Students begin translating brief passages from the Greek New Testament.
- 3 semester hours.
- B-116 NEW TESTAMENT GREEK II
- As the sequel to New Testament Greek I,
this course continues to introduce the basic elements of the language, including
vocabulary and the grammar of participles and other non-indicative verb
forms. By the end of this course, students are able to translate passages
from the Greek New Testament with the aid of the lexicon.
- 3 semester hours.
- Prerequisite: B/BIST-115.
- B-117 NEW TESTAMENT GREEK III
- This third semester involves substantial
practice in reading selected passages from the Greek New Testament. Students
will experience the writing styles of various New Testament authors; they
will solidify and expand their knowledge of Greek vocabulary, morphology,
and syntax; and they will begin to apply their knowledge of Greek in exegesis.
- 3 semester hours.
- Prerequisite: B/BIST-115
and B/BIST-116.
- B-201 RUTH AND JONAH
- This course will spend half the term on each of
these two short stories. The class will work with Ruth and Jonah exegetically
and theologically using interpretive tools appropriate to this kind of literature.
A course project will be identified by each student according to their interest.
This project will relate the text to congregation, academic, or wider public
community.
- 3 semester hours.
- B-203 PAUL AND THE CORINTHIANS
- A study of selected texts from the Corinthian
correspondence, texts that illustrate the development of early Christianity,
illumine the faith and ministry of the apostle Paul, and address recurring
issues in the formation of community in Christ. Case studies based on the
Corinthian letters will be used to explore the moral world of early Christian
groups.
- 3 semester hours.
- B-205C THE BIBLE IN THE 21ST CENTURY CHURCH
- This course in the Connections
program explores the way in which the church and the academy understand
and study the Bible. The church and the academy have different goals in
Bible study. We will look at the differing goals, methods and results, seeking
to learn how these two contexts of Bible study can be beneficial to one
another. The course will include both classroom time and online education.
It is paired with Christian Education in the 21st Century Church (M-235C)
as part of the Connections program.
- 3 semester hours.
- B-206 PSALMS, RHYTHMS & BLUES
- The Psalter speaks to the various
patterns of our lives. Life consists of Rhythms and Blues. The former speaks
to the recurring patterns and cycles of our life. The latter speaks to the
adversity of our contexts.
- 3 semester hours.
- B-207S PSALMS: THE INNER LIFE OF LAMENT AND PRAISE
- The Psalter speaks
to the various patterns of our lives and recounts the life of a people caught
between defeat and victory, youth and old age, wealth and poverty. At the
same time the Psalter enables us to understand our own piety and conviction
in a wide range of contexts and life situations.
- 3 semester hours.
- B-208 FRIENDSHIP AND LOYALTY IN THE BIBLE
- This course proposes that
anthropology and ecclesiology have an alternative to the Enlightenment modern
biblical theologies. This biblical theology centers on the subject of friendship
and loyalty as the core of biblical theology and ethics.
- 3 semester hours.
- B-209 GOSPEL OF MATTHEW
- This seminar is an opportunity to study the
Gospel of Matthew in some detail, with attention to its literary characteristics,
historical and social background, and theological implications. In addition
to examining the whole narrative in sequence, we will study selected passages
in greater depth, considering ways to interpret or apply them in ministry.
- 3 semester hours.
- B-210C NEW TESTAMENT FOUNDATIONS FOR MINISTRY
- This seminar invites
students to examine and develop their theology of ministry in light of some
of the ways ministry is understood in the New Testament. While exploring
a range of New Testament texts, students will practice interpretive methods
that are both enlightening and feasible in the context of a busy ministry
setting. This course is paired with Introduction to Preaching (M-210C) as
part of the core sequence in the Connections track.
- 3 semester hours.
- B-211 SERMON ON THE MOUNT
- A study of the classic Gospel text known
from ancient times as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Attention will be
given to the form and rhetoric of the Sermon, to its roots in the social
world of formative Judaism and early Christianity, to its use as a resource
for faith and life in the Christian community, and to its contribution to
the peace emphasis of the believers’ church tradition.
- 3 semester hours.
- B-212 THE LIFE OF MOSES
- Few characters have cast as large a shadow
on Judaism and Christianity than Moses. He is cast as a model of faith and
leadership. We will examine the biblical (such as Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy)
and extra-biblical texts about Moses. We will uncover the life of Moses
as a laboratory of faith development and leadership styles.
- 3 semester hours.
- B-220S JOB
- Job: A life of devotion in the context of obedience and catastrophe.
This course will examine the life lived between the rationality
of wisdom and the emotion of lament. The students in the class will critique
a commentary on Job (written by the professor), utilize simulations and
other teaching techniques in the presentation of the Book at the congregational
level, and consider the use of the Book in preaching and worship.
- 3 semester hours
- B-302 NEW TESTAMENT EXEGESIS
- An introduction to the theory and practice
of New Testament exegesis, utilizing a particular book of the New Testament
as case material. Careful attention will be given to the various worlds
of exegetical inquiry—the world within the text, the world behind
and around the text, and the world in front of the text.
- 3 semester hours.
- Prerequisite: B/BIST-102.
- B-303 INTERPRETING ROMANS
- A study of Paul’s letter to the Church
at Rome, exploring Paul’s message for Jewish and Gentile Christians
in the first century, and the implications of that message for readers in
the 21st century. The course examines aspects of Paul’s theology as
represented in Romans.
- 3 semester hours.
- B-304 GOSPEL OF JOHN
- A literary and theological
study of John’s gospel. Literary issues to be considered include the
gospel’s plot, character development, and extensive use of irony.
John’s most distinctive theological concepts and formulations will
also be considered, including realized eschatology, the incarnation of the
Word, and Jesus as the life and the light of the world.
- 3 semester hours.
- Prerequisite: B/BIST-102
or permission of the instructor.
- B-305 IN SEARCH OF JESUS
- A seminar on the quest for the historical
Jesus in recent biblical scholarship. Representative attempts to reconstruct
the teaching, activity, and intentions of Jesus will be examined in terms
of their presuppositions, methodologies, and how they relate to canonical
portrayals of Jesus.
- 3 semester hours.
- Prerequisite: B/BIST-102.
- B-306 THE ANATOMY OF POWER AND FAMILY: INVESTIGATIONS OF 1 & 2 SAMUEL
- The books of Samuel recount the rise of the nation state of Ancient
Israel. The stories construe the rise of the nation through family narratives.
In so doing the books of Samuel define for generations what it meant to
be family and what it meant to rule the nation, i.e. have power.
- 3 semester hours.
- Prerequisite: B/BIST-101.
- B-307 SEMINAR IN GENESIS
- This seminar will focus on one of the sagas
of Genesis, either the creation saga (1?11) or an ancestral saga (12?24,
etc). The class will explore the text using analytical tools appropriate
to biblical narrative. A course project will be identified by each student
according to their interest and circumstances. This project will be designed
to interpret a Genesis text to congregation, academic, or wider public community.
- 3 semester hours.
- Prerequisite: B/BIST-101.
- B-309 SEMINAR IN ISAIAH
- This seminar will focus either on Isaiah of
the Exile or Isaiah of Jerusalem. The class will explore the text using
analytical tools appropriate to biblical poetry. A course project will be
identified by each student according to their interest and circumstances.
This project will be designed to interpret an Isaiah text to congregation,
academic, or wider public community.
- 3 semester hours.
- Prerequisite: B/BIST-101.
- B-310 SEMINAR IN BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY AND HISTORY
- The social and material
world of the Bible provide an important tool for understanding the context
of biblical texts. We will examine recent work on the archeology, including
the new emphasis on the daily life. We will also examine the recent work
on social constructs of agrarian peoples of the region. The beginnings of
ancient Israel through the Persian period will be our focus in this seminar.
- 3 semester hours.
- Prerequisite: B/BIST 101.
- B-320 SEMINAR IN EZEKIEL
- This seminar will survey the book of Ezekiel.
The themes of temple and land interface with the ministerial offices of
priest and prophet dominate the book of Ezekiel and will shape the conversation
in the seminar. Participants will through a process of collaborative adult
learning investigate these themes. The biblical material will be put in
conversation with cross cultural North American materials.
- 3 semester hours.
- Prerequisite: B/BIST 101.
- B-330 THEOLOGICAL PROFILES OF JUDAISM IN THE GRECO-ROMAN PERIOD
- This course will expose the student to: 1) the most important of the non-biblical
Jewish texts of the era from 200 B.C. E. to 200 C. E.; 2) the religious/political
factors that shaped these documents; and 3) the persons and events of the
period. The student at the end of the course will be able to outline the
history of the period and discern the major theological and political debates
of the Greco-Roman period. The student will be able to recount the debate
by scholars on this period.
- 3 semester hours.
- Prerequisite: B/BIST 101
or B/BIST 102.
- B-340 BIBLE AND QUMRAN
- This seminar will focus on the archeology and
literature of the Qumran community. Areas of concentration will include
transmission and interpretation of Old Testament books, understandings of
Judaism of the Greco-Roman period, and the relationship between the documents
of the Qumran community and the rise of early Christianity.
- 3 semester hours.
- Prerequisite: B/BIST 101.
- ELECTIVE IN BIBLICAL STUDIES (200 OR 300 LEVEL)
- Various elective courses
will be offered in biblical studies, some focusing on particular books
of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, others on broader issues of interpreting
Scripture for faith and ministry. Previous offerings have included courses
such as Job and Proverbs, Jeremiah, Revelation, Feminism and Biblical
Theology, Pauline Theology, and travel seminars to Israel and Greece.
- 3 semester hours.
