Bible Interpretation
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Lesson OneEarly Bible Interpretation16 Activities|6 Assessments
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Getting Started
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In | Hermeneutics, Part 2
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In | Hermeneutics, Part 3
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In | Historical Interpretation
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In | Legal and Liturgical Interpretation
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In | Prophetic Interpretation
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In | Workbook: Biblical Genres
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Behind | Early Jewish Interpretation
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Behind | Two Teachers, Two Sources
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In Front | Christ-Centered Interpretation
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In Front | Practical and Theological Concerns
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In Front | Interpretation: Schools of Thought
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In Front | Communities of Interpretation
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In Front | Jewish and Christian Communities
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In Front | Workbook: The Marcionite Canon
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Wrap-Up
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Getting Started
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Lesson TwoModern Biblical Interpretation17 Activities|3 Assessments
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Getting Started
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In Front | Modern Bible Interpretation
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In Front | Erasmus the Moderate Reformer
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In Front | Enlightenment and Interpretation
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In Front | The Jefferson Bible, Part 2
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In Front | A Prominent Image for the New World, Part 2
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In Front | Charles Dickens’ The Life of Our Lord
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In Front | Subjectivism and Interpretation
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In Front | Ralph Waldo Emerson
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In Front | Postmodernism and Interpretation
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In Front | Hermeneutics of Advocacy
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In Front | Workbook: Hermeneutics of Advocacy
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In Front | Using the Bible for Agendas
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In Front | Workbook: Reflection
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In Front | Reliability and Infallibility
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In Front | Sensus Plenior
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Wrap-Up
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Getting Started
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Lesson ThreeSystematic and Biblical Theology13 Activities|3 Assessments
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Getting Started
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In Front | Perennial Tensions
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In Front | Workbook: Divine and Human Qualities, Part 1
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In Front | Workbook: Divine and Human Qualities, Part 2
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In Front | Systematic Theology, Part 1
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In Front | A More Historical Approach
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In Front | Biblical Theology, Part 1
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In Front | Workbook: Biblical Theology
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In Front | Lily Pad Theology
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In Front | Workbook: Lily Pad Theology
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In Front | Imperialism and the Bible
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In Front | Civil Rights and the Bible
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Wrap-Up
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Getting Started
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Lesson FourCase Study in Biblical Theology16 Activities|4 Assessments
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Getting Started
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In | A Case Study in Biblical Theology
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In | Workbook: Images for God in the Bible
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In | Workbook: Images for People in Relation to God, Part 2
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In | Shepherding: Biblical Leadership
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Behind | Shepherd Leadership
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Behind | Lessons from a Bedouin Shepherd [Bonus]
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Behind | Workbook: Having the Heart of a Shepherd
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Behind | Workbook: What Is the Most Basic Responsibility of a Shepherd?
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Behind | Shepherds Feed and Water the Sheep
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Behind | Workbook: The Next Most Important Responsibility of Shepherds
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Behind | Protecting the Sheep
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Behind | Competent and Cooperative Guidance [Bonus]
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Behind | Workbook: Synthesizing Images
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In Front | Threads in the Biblical Tapestry
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Wrap-Up
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Getting Started
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Lesson FiveThe Context of Revelation10 Activities|2 Assessments
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Getting Started
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In | Ancient Text and Genres, Part 2
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Behind | Ways the Bible Is Not Unique
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Behind | Workbook: The Bible’s Uniqueness
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Behind | Biblical Fusion
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Behind | Workbook: Biblical Fusion
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In Front | Surprise and Ownership
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In Front | Cultural Images and Contexts
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In Front | Culture's Revelatory Dimension
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Wrap-Up
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Getting Started
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Course Wrap-UpCourse Completion1 Activity|1 Assessment
Participants 12
In Front | Civil Rights and the Bible
Biblical images and passages, sometimes from the same parts of the Bible, were used to make a case against institutionalized racial inequality. References in powerful speeches by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to the “promised land” and the “mountaintop” may be the most well-known biblical references in the civil rights movement.
King was not the only activist to refer to the Bible in his pursuit of justice. Many of the leaders show a similar mix of biblical theology and what some call “contextual theology.”
Modjeska Simkins, the secretary of the NAACP in South Carolina, drew on a wide range of biblical themes and images in her invective against racism. She compared white persecution and lynching to the murder of Abel by his brother Cain in Genesis, and offered a connection between Job and the African-American people:
Like ourselves—Job [was in a] great struggle against power. In Ephesians 6:12 we find, [“]For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of darkness in this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.[”] Make no mistake. That is where we are. Wrestling against evil in high places—against poor, disenfranchised, various forms of racial and sexual abuse, obvious and subtle …. We are striving to exist in an alien society.
James Lawson was a Methodist minister who worked with King and other activists and today still trains younger activists in the tactics of non-violence. When faced with persecution, he insisted:
The politics of Jesus and the politics of God are that people should be fed, that people have access to life, that people should be treated equally and justly. Especially the marginalized. The poor, the illiterate, the jailed, the hungry, the naked—those are all terms Jesus uses.
Lawson found not only guidance but also strength in the Bible.
There’s an idea in the New Testament that love vanquishes all fear. There is all across the Bible the advice, “Do not be afraid! Do not be dismayed. When you see all these things happening, do not be alarmed.”
Along with his fellow activists, and guided and empowered by a biblical theology, Lawson had an enormous impact on American history and the place of African-Americans within it.
Sources:
David L. Chappell, A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow, 2004, pp. 63, 66; Heidi Hall, “Civil rights advocate James Lawson was rooted in faith.” The Tennessean, March 02, 2017, Accessed April 27, 2017. http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2017/03/02/civil-rights-advocate-james-lawson-rooted-faith/98605166/.