Here are some ideas I had for different topics that we could cover in whatever we end up calling this Bible Study group. There is a wide spectrum of how much I've thought about these topics, as well as a wide spectrum of how much spiritual/theological depth they offer. Let me know any that you think are particularly interesting so that I can begin to gather sources and do research far enough in advance to put together some worthwhile sessions. There's a wide variety of topics here, but I think the main unifying theme is trying to place the Bible within its historical, geographical, and philosophical context. It's not within my capabilities as an emotionally stunted Irish-Catholic man to run a Bible study group where we do straight readings of Biblical books and talk about how we feel for an hour and a half, so I'm going to do my best to keep you on your toes. A big caveat here is that, like autism and being gay, spiritual belief is on a spectrum. My only ground rule (that I can think of now, I'm sure I'll have more later) is that I don't want anyone _j'accusing_ anyone else of being too far in either direction on the religiousity spectrum. It's no fun and I think we all move around on that line a lot more than we publicly discuss. Anyways! Here's what I've brainstormed so far... ## Intro to the Bible ![[not_in_the_bible_dithered.png]] This is obviously where we should start. This would be a bit of a survey of common questions about the Bible such as: - Its structure - OT vs. NT, and the organization within each - The history of its composition - Its authorship - Its regional influences (Caananites, Babylonians, etc.) - Its overarching plot & themes Time permitting, I'd like to also discuss some introductory Biblical criticism, such as the Documentary Hypothesis and the Q Source. ## Book of Isaiah ![[isaiah_dithered.png]] Now that I'm done talking about how much I don't want to just sit down and do a straight reading of a single Biblical book in isolation over the course of a few weeks, it's time for me to talk about how much I'd love to do an Isaiah reading series. The Book of Isaiah examines Israel before and during the Babylonian Exile, presages the coming of a "Suffering Servant", and foresees a future where those in bondage are freed from their Earthly suffering. There is also a wealth of literature on the question of the authorship of Isaiah that I would love to sink my teeth into. Until the late 1700s, it was presumed that the book was written by a single prophet, but by the 20th century, the scholarly consensus was that the book was composed by three authors over a period of over 200 years. More recent work splits Isaiah into two parts, bifurcated based on thematic content, but I think this is trying to be too clever by half. If you can't see the beauty and tragedy in three different men, separated by generations, prophesying about the eventual deliverance of Israel, a deliverance that none of them would ever see, I don't know what to tell you. On top of this, we could just discuss some of the poetic highs in the books, the historical lead up to the Babylonian Exile, the conditions within Babylon, and a small amount of Babylonian culture. ## Wheeling and Dealing with the Almighty ![[hold_onto_your_cock_dithered.png]] One of the most interesting features of the relationship between God and humanity in the Bible is how much people try to haggle and negotiate with Him. In this class we'd read passages where characters deal with God or His emissaries in various ways, such as Abraham trying to stop the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah, Jonah's attempts to welch on his deal with God, and Jacob inventing no holds barred wrassling. ## Near Eastern Religious Influences in the Old Testament ![[near_eastern_cosmology_dithered.png]] A wise woman once said: "You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you." In the case of the Bible, the context is the broader world of Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) civilizations which includes the Sumerians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Canaanites, Hittites, as well as many others. This class would have us read excerpts of ANE myths and find correspondences in some of the earlier portions of the Old Testament, especially in its cosmology, as well as begin introducing the idea that the Israelites were monolatrous/henotheistic, rather than monotheistic as we commonly consider them to be. On a more lurid note, this would probably be a reasonable time to get into all the Moloch stuff. ## The Development of Monotheism ![[marduk_dithered.png]] As alluded to in "Near Eastern Religious Influences in the Old Testament", there is a scholarly consensus that the Israelites were not monotheists, but monolatrous; they acknowledged the existence of other gods, and even their ability to exert power and influence over the world, but believed that only YHWH merited worship. In this class we'd examine how the Israelites' cosmological views shifted throughout the course of the Old Testament, and we'd pay special attention to the Canaanite deities Ba'al and El (sidebar: ever wonder why the names Michael, Samuel, and Daniel all end in -el?) , as well as the Babylonian Marduk. ## What does it mean to be "Christlike"? ![[makro_dithered.png]] Years ago, a woman broke up with me to become a nun. She eventually ended up marrying a man who failed to become a priest in what might be a genuine Match Made In Heaven. That's all fine and good, but I'm still haunted to this day by what I didn't say on the phone when she relayed the news to me: "What does He have that I don't?" You just know when you miss an all-time opportunity to be funny, and I don't know when one that good will ever come again. This is all to ask the question: "What does Jesus have that we don't?", and also "What does Jesus have that we do?" What does it even mean to be Christlike, in the sense of behaving in the manner of Jesus Christ in the Four Gospels. I'd like to use this class to make an exhaustive spreadsheet of basically everything that He does, in a data-driven attempt to achieve theosis. If you are a Microsoft Excel Power User, please contact me, I've got a lot of big ideas here. ## Pre-Nicene Christianity ![[desert_fathers_dithered.png]] After the homily, every good Catholic enters a dissociative state and recites the Nicene Creed by memory, teleporting into the future at a rate of 1 second per second. We take it for granted that the Nicaean view of Christianity was what it always was and was supposed to be, but what competing views of Christianity were being promulgated at the time? In this class, I'd like to cover a little bit of Gnostic literature, go over Arianism, and the eventual conception of the Trinity as we would begin to recognize it, and maybe read the Wisdom of the Desert Fathers for some context about the day-to-day of Christian life (I also just really like that book). ## You Talking Talmud To Me? ![[ben_zakai_dithered.png]] An actual exchange from the first day of the last year I taught CCD: Me: "Does anyone have any religious questions they've always wanted to ask about?" Student: "Yes, Mr. W-----. What's up with Jewish people?" Me: "..." Student: \[REDACTED] Jesus spends much of His time in the New Testament arguing with the Pharisees about the spirit and meaning of the law, but what did the Pharisees really think, and what other discussions were going on at the time? This one would go over Second Temple Era Judaism, the role of The Temple, and the arguments going on between the Essenes, Pharisees, and Saducees prior to Jesus' ministry. We'd end with reading the story of Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai and his creation a new Judaism rooted in *chesed*. ## Kabbalah? Qabbalah? It's all ferkakte to me! ![[sefirot_dithered.png]] This is literally just an excuse to compare and contrast the last two episodes of *Neon Genesis Evangelion* with the film adaptation, *End of Evangelion*. I could tell you that we'll also read some Gershom Scholem and excerpts from _The Dictionary of the Khazars_, but we all know what we're here for, so why pretend? I should invite my Korean friend that keeps complaining that every man that she dates enjoys Evangelion. It's time for her to learn.