posted by
revdorothyl at 04:30pm on 28/08/2008
I asked some colleagues of mine here at the publishing house (particularly one doctoral student in Ethics who happens to be a young man who loves to work out) about 'how do I teach the Bible to an all-male class', and received the following list of things to emphasize:
Blood (no shortage of that in the NT, certainly!)
Battles (besides Revelation, there are references to spiritual warfare, etc. -- plus, there's the whole bloody history of the Roman occupation of Palestine that I can bring in, not to mention the 'rival' cult of Mithras which was so popular with the military up until about the time that Constantine had his 'conversion' experience)
Monsters (pretty much have to go to Revelation for that)
Sex (regrettably, perhaps, the New Testament talks about sex a whole lot less than it does about money, and much less than most people would think, given the over-emphasis in so much religious dialogue and literature on 'sexual sins' as somehow more important than those of wrath and greed -- but still, I can probably find a way to work with that one. Maybe I could show a clip from "Dogma", like the scene where Chris Rock explains that Mary the mother of Jesus was NOT a perpetual virgin after the birth of Jesus?)
Any other topics I should add to the list of 'things to emphasize' in order to appeal to the all-male class?
My "male consultant" DID say that I could probably show my film clips from "X-Men" and expand upon my theory that Wolverine is essentially a Christ-figure, one whose real 'power' lies in his ability (and willingness) to suffer and die for others, and yet not be destroyed, and that this would probably appeal to my students. He also suggested I should plan to show clips from the "Terminator" films and other entertaining action/Sci-Fi films that he and I had been happily discussing earlier in the day.
Blood (no shortage of that in the NT, certainly!)
Battles (besides Revelation, there are references to spiritual warfare, etc. -- plus, there's the whole bloody history of the Roman occupation of Palestine that I can bring in, not to mention the 'rival' cult of Mithras which was so popular with the military up until about the time that Constantine had his 'conversion' experience)
Monsters (pretty much have to go to Revelation for that)
Sex (regrettably, perhaps, the New Testament talks about sex a whole lot less than it does about money, and much less than most people would think, given the over-emphasis in so much religious dialogue and literature on 'sexual sins' as somehow more important than those of wrath and greed -- but still, I can probably find a way to work with that one. Maybe I could show a clip from "Dogma", like the scene where Chris Rock explains that Mary the mother of Jesus was NOT a perpetual virgin after the birth of Jesus?)
Any other topics I should add to the list of 'things to emphasize' in order to appeal to the all-male class?
My "male consultant" DID say that I could probably show my film clips from "X-Men" and expand upon my theory that Wolverine is essentially a Christ-figure, one whose real 'power' lies in his ability (and willingness) to suffer and die for others, and yet not be destroyed, and that this would probably appeal to my students. He also suggested I should plan to show clips from the "Terminator" films and other entertaining action/Sci-Fi films that he and I had been happily discussing earlier in the day.
There are 9 comments on this entry.