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Books mentioned during Bible Boot Camp
and other resources by these authors
and other resources by these authors
Reclaiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World,
John Shelby Spong
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Spong in Huffington Post
"The contrast between the way the Bible is understood in the academic world
and the way it is viewed in our churches is striking. I know because in my life
as a priest and a bishop I have both served typical congregations and been
privileged to study and to teach in some of the best known Christian academic
centers in the world. In academia I discovered that issues and insights,
commonplace among the scholars, are viewed as highly controversial and even as
"heresy" in the churches. The result has been that the majority of people who
have remained in the church have become more and more rigid and fundamentalist,
while those who have left have become more and more dismissive of everything,
good or bad, about Christianity. We also now have a crop of writers like Richard
Dawkins and Christopher Hitchen, who have totally demolished the fundamentalist
approach to God with their clever and penetrating books, yet they are seemingly
unaware that there are other ways to view Christianity."
Click here to read more of this article
John Shelby Spong
Click here to connect to Books, Inc, to order this book
Spong in Huffington Post
"The contrast between the way the Bible is understood in the academic world
and the way it is viewed in our churches is striking. I know because in my life
as a priest and a bishop I have both served typical congregations and been
privileged to study and to teach in some of the best known Christian academic
centers in the world. In academia I discovered that issues and insights,
commonplace among the scholars, are viewed as highly controversial and even as
"heresy" in the churches. The result has been that the majority of people who
have remained in the church have become more and more rigid and fundamentalist,
while those who have left have become more and more dismissive of everything,
good or bad, about Christianity. We also now have a crop of writers like Richard
Dawkins and Christopher Hitchen, who have totally demolished the fundamentalist
approach to God with their clever and penetrating books, yet they are seemingly
unaware that there are other ways to view Christianity."
Click here to read more of this article
The Bible as it Was, James Kugel
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This is a guide to the Hebrew Bible unlike any other. Leading us chapter by chapter through its most important stories—from the Creation and the Tree of Knowledge through the Exodus from Egypt and the journey to the Promised Land--James Kugel shows how a group of anonymous, ancient interpreters radically transformed the Bible and made it into the book that has come down to us today.
Click here to read more of this article
Click here to find an on-line source to purchase this book
This is a guide to the Hebrew Bible unlike any other. Leading us chapter by chapter through its most important stories—from the Creation and the Tree of Knowledge through the Exodus from Egypt and the journey to the Promised Land--James Kugel shows how a group of anonymous, ancient interpreters radically transformed the Bible and made it into the book that has come down to us today.
Click here to read more of this article
The Lost Gospel of Q, Marcus Borg
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Learn more about this book.
Click here to connect to Books, Inc. to order this book
Learn more about this book.
The Lost Gospel of Q, Burton Mack
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Burton Mack writes about Mark and Q (The Lost Gospel, pp. 177-179):
Mark wrote his story of Jesus some time after the war and shortly after Q had been
revised with the Q3 additions. If we date Q3 around 75 C.E. to give some time
for the additions obviously prompted by the ware, Mark can be dated between 75
and 80 C.E. . . . For Mark, Q was extremely useful, for it had already
positioned Jesus at the hinge of an epic-apocalyptic history, and it contained
themes and narrative material that could easily be turned into a more eventful
depiction of Jesus' public appearance. Q provided Mark with a large number of
themes essential to his narrative. He was taken with the epic-apocalyptic
mythology, the theme of prophetic prediction, and the announcement of judgment
upon the scribes, Pharisees, and "this generation." The figure of the son of
man intrigued him, as did the notion that the kingdom of God would be fully
revealed only at the eschaton when the son of man (or Jesus, according to Mark)
(re)appeared. Q also provided material that could easily be turned to advantage
as building blocks in a coherent narrative account. The John-Jesus material was
a great opener. The figure of the holy spirit was ready-made to connect the Q
material on John and Jesus with the miracle stories Mark would use. Q's
characterization of Jesus as the all-knowing one could be used to enhance his
authority as a self-referential speaker in the pronouncement stories Mark
already had from his own community. The notion of Jesus as the son of God could
be used to create mystique, divide the house on the question of Jesus' true
identity, and develop narrative anticipation, the device scholars call Mark's
"messianic secret." The instruction for the workers in the harvest could be
turned into a mission charge, and the theme of discipleship could be combined
and given narrative profile by introducing a few disciples into the story. The
apocalyptic predictions at the end of Q could then become instructions to the
disciples at that point in the story where Jesus turns to go to Jerusalem. And,
as scholars know, there are a myriad of interesting points at which the
so-called overlaps between Mark and Q show Mark's use of Q material for his own
narrative designs.
Click here to read more about Q
Click here to go to Books, Inc to order a copy of this book
Burton Mack writes about Mark and Q (The Lost Gospel, pp. 177-179):
Mark wrote his story of Jesus some time after the war and shortly after Q had been
revised with the Q3 additions. If we date Q3 around 75 C.E. to give some time
for the additions obviously prompted by the ware, Mark can be dated between 75
and 80 C.E. . . . For Mark, Q was extremely useful, for it had already
positioned Jesus at the hinge of an epic-apocalyptic history, and it contained
themes and narrative material that could easily be turned into a more eventful
depiction of Jesus' public appearance. Q provided Mark with a large number of
themes essential to his narrative. He was taken with the epic-apocalyptic
mythology, the theme of prophetic prediction, and the announcement of judgment
upon the scribes, Pharisees, and "this generation." The figure of the son of
man intrigued him, as did the notion that the kingdom of God would be fully
revealed only at the eschaton when the son of man (or Jesus, according to Mark)
(re)appeared. Q also provided material that could easily be turned to advantage
as building blocks in a coherent narrative account. The John-Jesus material was
a great opener. The figure of the holy spirit was ready-made to connect the Q
material on John and Jesus with the miracle stories Mark would use. Q's
characterization of Jesus as the all-knowing one could be used to enhance his
authority as a self-referential speaker in the pronouncement stories Mark
already had from his own community. The notion of Jesus as the son of God could
be used to create mystique, divide the house on the question of Jesus' true
identity, and develop narrative anticipation, the device scholars call Mark's
"messianic secret." The instruction for the workers in the harvest could be
turned into a mission charge, and the theme of discipleship could be combined
and given narrative profile by introducing a few disciples into the story. The
apocalyptic predictions at the end of Q could then become instructions to the
disciples at that point in the story where Jesus turns to go to Jerusalem. And,
as scholars know, there are a myriad of interesting points at which the
so-called overlaps between Mark and Q show Mark's use of Q material for his own
narrative designs.
Click here to read more about Q