Biblical Literacy in a Secular Manner: Kingship (Highschool)

Students will learn to recognize some of the popular Biblical stories. This is important as many Biblical characters are referenced to within European and North American art and literature.

Students will learn about different theories relating to the history of ancient Israel and the ancient religions of the area. 

I was raised within the United Church of Canada to view the Bible as a historical and literary document. I attended theological studies at McGill University, in Montreal, Quebec. I'm currently agnostic or even atheist, but fascinated by Biblical history. I have published a book on the topic, titled A Secular Bible Study.

This is a flexible schedule class so we will not be meeting live. Students will be asked to do a weekly reading assignment and to watch the short videos. Then they will be invited to engage the material in a variety of ways including (but not limited to):

- Participating in discussion in the Outschool classroom.
- Writing guessing games and riddles for one another to answer.
- Retelling stories in their own words.

No live meetings, and an estimated 2 - 4 hours per week outside of class.

I will be using information gleaned from a variety of books, including A History of Israelite Religion in the Old Testament Period by Rainer Albertz, The Hebrew Bible: A Socio-Literary Introduction by Norman K. Gottwald, The Gospels and Jesus by Graham Stanton, as well as the works of John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg. I also draw materials from academic journals.