The Wonders and Challenges of Bible Education

The Biblical text is rich with vivid descriptions of the various key characters who serve as prototypes for human behavior throughout history. The course will examine a range of different approaches to presenting the Biblical characters including exegetical approaches, historical, literary and psychological insights. During the course, students will be exposed to a variety of Biblical narratives as well as multiple approaches that highlight some of the educational challenges at hand. In this course, we will explore the challenges in the exciting world of teaching the Bible, from a range of different perspectives: historical context, psychological input, and artistic interpretations. We will learn tools to engage students of all ages in the meaningful study of Biblical texts and work together to understand Biblical characters. We will analyze the philosophical, educational, moral, and theological challenges of learning and presenting the Bible to our students, as well as different pedagogical and textual techniques to teach Biblical characters in a compelling and meaningful way, and how to adapt the approaches and techniques we use in the classroom to match our educational goals. We will also explore how social and historical norms have impacted our understanding of Biblical characters, as well as their role as national heroes to the present day. We will discuss philosophy for children and its role in modern moral education. Topics that will be covered include: Ideological, philosophical, and educational issues in teaching Bible; Identifying educational goals; Using images to enrich Bible education; Using literary skills to analyze Biblical texts; Challenges of teaching classic Jewish texts; Literary tools to analyze Biblical characters; Grappling with the moral challenges posed by Biblical characters’ words and actions; Historical, social and normative factors in presenting Biblical characters; Different approaches to presenting Biblical characters; Addressing the moral behavior of Biblical characters; Identifying and analyzing different approaches to moral education; Exploring a “paradigms of inquiry” approach to teaching moral dilemmas in the Bible; Learning how to use different “hats” to interpret Biblical stories; Examining Biblical characters who serve as national symbols.

This course has been adapted for Coursera based on the online course, “Curriculum and the Teaching of Jewish Texts”, taught by Dr. Howard Deitcher, as part of the Blended M.A. in Education, with a specialization in Jewish Education, at the Melton Centre for Jewish Education at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

In this module, we will examine the following topics: a. Overview of Tools for Analyzing Biblical Characters. b. Educational Goals in Bible Education. c. Educational Messages in teaching Bible texts.

In this module, we'll deal with three main issues: a. Challenges in Teaching Classical Jewish texts today. b. How do we broach theological issues?. c. Teaching Genesis 18, 1-15.

In this module, we will look at the following topics: 1. An overview of the course to date 2. Different types of characters 3. Literary tools for analyzing Biblical characters 4. We will use the tools that we learned in this lesson in order to examine Samuel 2 6:10.