Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Topic: Teaching the Bible as Literature

10-second review: As in the case of the students who wrote “Atom and Eve,” students need knowledge of the Bible to aid in reading other literary works.

Title: “The Bible presented Objectively.” A Hildebrand. Language Arts (January 1976), 63-75. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Summary: Reviews court cases involving using the Bible for literary study in public schools. Concludes with a bibliography of books related to the study of the Bible as literature . Why read the Bible as literature? Charlotte Huck: “Other literature cannot be fully understood unless children are familiar with the outstanding characters, incidents, poems, proverbs and parables of this literature of the Western world of thought.”

Comment: My summary of this article: Essentially, one cannot teach the Bible as religion, but can teach about the Bible as a source of literary allusions.

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