Course Syllabus

Instructors: Pamela Eisenbaum and Ted Vial 

Graduate Student Assistant: Joshua Smith (jsmith@iliff.edu)

E-mail: peisenbaum@iliff.edu and tvial@iliff.edu

(or to message both, use the Ask Your Instructor a Question option in the Canvas Help menu)

***N.B. you can find the schedule for gathering days here; if you want a document you can print, click here.

Course Synopsis

Debates over biblical authority within Christianity and in the public square are common place in American society.  Such debates have a long history. "Biblical Authority and Interpretation" examines a wide range of perspectives on scriptural authority and interpretation from the history of Christianity and beyond.  Engaging with such a variety of attitudes toward the Bible, its translation, and interpretation will help students think critically about their own use of scripture, and begin to articulate thoughtfully their own positions on the uses of Scripture in our contemporary world.

Course Objectives

The learning goals for this course are as follows:

1)    To create critical awareness about the role of the Bible in Christian tradition and the various ways in which it has been granted authority by theologians and communites

2)    To develop deeper historical consciousness by introducing students to some key figures in the history of Christian thought and their views of the Bible

3)    To contemplate the ways in which modernity has challenged biblical authority and understand the stakes over the debate about the Bible’s status for Christians and American culture generally

4)    To enable students to engage primary sources for themselves (rather than studying the topic exclusively through text books or modern scholarship)

5)    To develop better skills at reading and writing critically in the context of a graduate theological school

6)    To learn to use the resources of the course to think theologically about the Bible in terms of one’s particular religious tradition, and to articulate one’s own position on the nature, significance, and authority of the Bible, as well as one’s role as a biblical interpreter

Course Texts

Readings will be made available in Canvas.

Evaluation (breakdown of grade weighting)

Overview of Assignments

Policies And Services