“Students who want to do serious study of Western civilization need to know the Bible,” says Barbara Newman, Northwestern University professor of English, Religion and Classics. “They need to know the Bible, even if they do not believe the Bible.”
Harvard professor Robert Kiely, for one, agrees. In 2006, he participated in an academic survey of professors from many of America’s leading universities ”” including Yale, Princeton, Brown, Rice, California-Berkeley and Stanford. The survey ”” commissioned by the Bible Literacy Project, which promotes academic Bible study in public schools ”” found an overwhelming consensus among top professors that incoming college students need to be well-versed in the stories, themes and words of the Bible.
“If a student doesn’t know any Bible literature, he or she will simply not understand whole elements of Shakespeare, Sidney, Spenser, Milton, Pope, Wordsworth. One could go on and on and on,” Kiely told Concordia professor Marie Wachlin and her research team.
“Knowledge of the Bible can be a key to unlocking other subjects. . . especially literature, art, music and social studies,” say Chuck Stetson, co-editor of the visually stunning high school textbook The Bible and Its Influence, and founder of the Bible Literacy Project.
I appreciate the premise and agree that without knowledge of Scripture many things are locked away from understanding. However. I can’t trust teachers to teach my children basic history without bias and error (one funny mistake: a local high school teacher–an A&M grad–explained to my son that Jews and Muslims are “semantic peoples,” my frosh son couldn’t believe his ears and asked the teacher to spell it and that’s what he wrote on the board) or even English (we routinely get messages from teachers that not only contain typos but also aren’t conjugated properly). Then there’s the fact that so few teachers even attend church. How can we put the explanation of Scripture in their hands? Just asking…
At the University of Georgia in the 1990s, I took a modern drama course from a professor who was a native of India and not a Christian. A basic understanding of Christian concepts and Bible stories was needed to understand some of the plays (surprising, i guess, in a 20th C drama class) and I was deeply saddened to realize that this understanding was something few – any? – of my classmates had. She “taught” the Bible, but her own understanding was so limited that all the resonance was missing – barebones Bible, if you will. I think the students would almost have been better off left to wonder. From her telling, it would have been impossible to “get” what the playwrights were reacting against or springing from.
I believe the Bible is a remarkable work of literature. Moreover, I believe the Holy Spirit superintends the reading of it. ANYWHERE. So if a student in a public school can spend time in the Word–whether it be taught by a pagan or a Christian–that word can become part of that student.
Now what I would REALLY lilke to see is a thorough study of the Bible done in our Christian churches. If we could do as much Bible teaching there as is promoted in this story, just think of what could happen. Students of all ages would discover the lessons God intends for His people. And, if by chance, a teacher is a Godly Christian, just think of the “unintended consequences!”
Seriously, if we were as intentional about teaching the Bible in our churches as this article suggests for public schools, we might find some in the Episcopal Church who would appreciate the simplicity and directness of God’s Word–and speak out against the twisting of it that comes from those in TEC leadership who want to add to it and twist it. Like those on the HoB/D list who are promoting all sorts of distortions to folks who know NOTHING about the Word.