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Jesus the Forgiving Victim Part 2: God, not one of the gods
Congratulations on completing Part 1, Starting human, staying human. Part 2, God, not one of the gods dives into the Bible, what James sometimes jokingly calls the big bad book. Part 2 consists of 6 modules.
Module 1 The Stoning of Achan
When we read Scripture through the eyes of the Forgiving Victim we cannot help but see things from the victim’s perspective, even if the story is told from the point of view of the persecutors. We will read such a story in this module, the story of the stoning of Achan found in Joshua chapter seven.
Unit 1 Welcome to Part 2: God, not one of the gods
Unit 2 2.1 The stoning of Achan: Reading Scripture through new eyes
Unit 3 2.1 The stoning of Achan: Listen and share
Unit 4 2.1 The stoning of Achan: Wrap-up
Module 2 Prophecy and interpretation
We will explore problems with two different approaches to reading Scriptures: the Marcionite way of reading and the fundamentalist approach. Then we will see that by approaching Scriptures as a progressive revelation, we can discover new and more true things about God and ourselves.
Unit 1 2.2 Prophecy and interpretation: Receiving a new story
Unit 2 2.2 Prophecy and interpretation: Reading the mysteries backwards
Unit 3 2.2 Prophecy and interpretation: Listen and Share
Unit 4 2.2 Prophecy and interpretation: Wrap-up
Module 3 Interpretation in the Scriptures
The struggle around interpretation is not imposed upon Scriptures, but something that happens within them. For a rather important example, we’ll look at the different interpretations offered by Jeremiah and Ezekiel around the question of God’s involvement with child sacrifice.
Unit 1 2.3 Interpretation in the Scriptures: Receiving a new story
Unit 2 2.3 Interpretation in the Scriptures: Understanding sacrifice
Unit 3 2.3 Interpretation in the Scriptures: Listen and Share
Unit 4 2.3 Interpretation in the Scriptures: Wrap-up
Module 4 The final edition
Monotheism emerges in the texts of 2nd Isaiah, but it was a late development. We will look at how the Hebrew Scriptures are not, strictly speaking, monotheistic.
Unit 1 2.4 The final edition: Receiving a new story
Unit 2 2.4 The final edition: Let’s talk about the Old Testament
Unit 3 2.4 The final edition: Listen and Share
Unit 4 2.4 The final edition: Wrap-up
Module 5 Priests and prophets
We will explore the process by which it became possible to put distance between God and human victim-making. We will see the movement in Scriptures away from systems of religious purity and of the notion that historical calamity is a punishment for sin.
Unit 1 2.5 Priests and prophets: Receiving a new story
Unit 2 2.5 Priests and prophets: Experiencing God and Creation
Unit 3 2.5 Priests and prophets: Listen and share
Unit 4 2.5 Priests and prophets: Wrap-up
Module 6 God’s utter aliveness
Notions of morality and racial purity appear as the exiles return from Babylon to Jerusalem. Prophetic writings and the Wisdom literature kept alive a different understanding, that of God’s utter aliveness and the opening up of Creation from within the Holy Place in the Temple.
Unit 1 2.6 God’s utter aliveness: Receiving a new story
Unit 2 2.6 God’s utter aliveness: Walk down memory lane
Unit 3 2.6 God’s utter aliveness: Listen and share
Unit 4 2.6 God’s utter aliveness: Wrap-up