Literature of the Bible.

Catalog description

An understanding of the Bible is not only essential for the Christian life, but an interdisciplinary knowledge of the Bible is indispensable for understanding world institutions, art, and literature. A sweeping panorama that covers the whole canvas of the ancient world, the Bible takes in vast tracts of geography, history, and culture. Its scope looks back to a pre-recorded past at time’s beginning and looks forward to history’s end. Across its pages, a record of divine and human interaction unfolds in narratives, moral instruction, prophecy, praise, history, wisdom literature, love poetry, and apocalypse. Its genres proliferate across a progressive revelation as the heart of God expresses itself in all major literary forms we still have today. Understanding that literary language and those literary forms is a key to understanding the Bible’s message. This course covers the Bible not only within its historical and cultural context, but especially in its unique literary character. Students explore the import that meaning holds for an understanding of God and his acts in this world and trace the Bible’s lasting influence on subsequent art and literature.