BLOGGING TOWARD SUNDAY…

Dr. Kristi Swenson teaches Hebrew Bible at Virginia Commonwealth.  In a recent comment on the Christian Century’s blog, she wrote something that I shared with my Disciple Class a couple of weeks ago:

“The first Bible class I took in college made me angry….I fumed as the professor taught that Isaiah’s “for unto us a child is born” wasn’t written about Jesus, and rolled my eyes in exasperation when he explained that we can’t say for sure exactly what Jesus really said.  I am now that professor.  Wonders never cease.

“I’d like to protect my students from the anxieties of learning, but accepting even basic information about the Bible can rock the faithful’s world as it did mine.  Some students will resent me when fault lines in their belief’s foundations are laid bare, just as I resented my prof.  I’ll try to assure them that learning about the Bible, its historical context and development, different literary forms and functions, and the variety of ways God is portrayed in it, can enrich their faith.  But learning is bound to change one’s faith, and change is risky.

“Sometimes I miss those days of certainty and devotion, and I’m not eager to push my students out of theirs.  Then I ask myself, ‘What is life if not change?  Can’t God be the handmaid of our changing faith, even when it’s God that we call into question?  Maybe taking the risk that learning requires is just another leap of faith.”

Thanks to Dr. Swenson for telling her story, for in telling hers, she has told mine. 

Filed under: Blogging Toward Sunday