Biblical Studies

Using Prairie Bible Institute as a case study, I look at evangelical interactions with modernism and the ecumenical movement, and see how evangelical separatism was the main driver of interdenominationalism among evangelicals and fundamentalists in the 20th century.

The focus of this paper will be on the character of the Samaritan woman herself, where we will discover how Jesus empowered her as an evangelist, despite her history and the community from which she came.  In this paper, we will be discussing the character of the Samaritan woman who encountered Jesus, and look at all the different ways she can be engaged with that can deepen our understanding of the ministry of Jesus.  In the end, we will see that the gospel of John does not present the Samaritan woman as a woman living in sin, but empowers her as a matriarch and evangelist to the Samaritans.

This class will explore the book of Isaiah with attention given to historical backgrounds, the nature of prophecy in the ancient Near East, the various genres within the book, and significant themes found throughout the book. Students will gain familiarity with the content of the book, the progression and development of themes within the book, and the skills required to read and interpret prophetic texts. These skills will be enhanced by readings from the Ancient Christian Commentary and by reading modern scholars who are not white westerners. In addition, an important goal of the class is to encounter the presence of God as we read, discuss, and meditate on the text of Isaiah together.

This introduction to Classical Hebrew stresses vocabulary acquisition, noun and verb morphology, proficiency in oral reading and translation, and familiarization with Hebrew language tools. This class includes a strong focus on the historical development of the Hebrew language so that students understand the principles of word formation rather than having to rely solely on rote memory. Students will translate slightly modified passages taken from Gen 37-50 (the Joseph narrative) and will learn frequently attested Hebrew vocabulary. Many different learning modes will be employed to enhance understanding and retention of the language, including songs, videos and pictures, simple speaking and reciting, reading, and writing. Students are encouraged to fully engage with each learning mode, not to take themselves too seriously, and to be willing to make mistakes. Students are encouraged to engage with Hebrew every day; this will greatly enhance overall language understanding and retention.

This course introduces and surveys the literature of the Old Testament from within its historical, cultural, and literary context as the necessary foundation for understanding the character of God, his relationship to his creation, his work to redeem and restore, and the identity and relationship of humans to God and creation. A broad historical and theological overview will provide a framework within which to understand the basic content and themes of each Old Testament book. Attention will be given to ancient Near Eastern culture and literary genres to fill out key aspects for accurate interpretation. Upon completion of this course, students should be able to explain the historical-theological arc of the Old Testament, key characteristics of God, the place of humans in God's creation and plan of redemption, and a basic contribution from each of the Old Testament books to these broad ideas.

The book of Micah presents a familiar prophetic message: Yahweh’s people have become increasingly sinful to the point of requiring serious discipline, judgment, and purging. Through this purging, a faithful remnant will survive to participate in a glorious restoration, characterized by holistic well-being. This redemptive reversal will be accomplished through Yahweh’s covenant faithfulness and sovereign power, condemning those who persist in disobedience but forgiving those who turn in obedience. Though the various prophets have various ways of presenting these truths, this basic outline is common to many of them. This paper, however, argues that Mic. 6–7 highlights memory as a key component within the schema of Yahweh’s redemptive reversal, a component that is almost entirely absent from the scholarly discussions on this text. Though scholars often note the implicit call to repentance imbedded within the memory commands of Mic. 6:3–5, the significance of memory’s connection to renewed identity and transformed behavior, like that described in Mic. 7:7–20, is not developed. The goal, then, of this paper is to advance an argument for why the memory commands are a significant factor in the movement in Mic. 6–7 from open rebellion against Yahweh to lament to admission of sin to forgiveness and restoration. Drawing on insights from social memory studies, textual analysis will first focus on Mic. 6:1–8 to better appreciate the power of memory to shape identity and behavior. The characteristics of those who obey these memory commands will then be outlined and contrasted with the characteristics of those who do not obey them. Finally, the characteristics of those who remember will be compared to those of the remnant who receive forgiveness and holistic restoration in Mic. 7:18–20. Through this analysis and comparison, this paper argues that the Mic. 6¬–7 presents memory as an essential component in the process that leads to forgiveness and restoration.

This paper briefly evaluates white Evangelical American Christians' susceptibility to a theology of violence and critiques, on biblical ground, the nonviolent ethic’s ascendancy in the Black church’s discourse and teaching in light of White Evangelical theology of violence. The paper ultimately advocates for the Black church’s need for more robust theology of resistance (i.e. resistance theology) to combat white Christian America’s susceptibility to a theology of violence.

This paper builds on James Cones' Black Liberation Theology (BLT) and grants the well-known fact that BLT leans heavily on the Hebrew Bible’s Exodus motif for its hermeneutic.  Cones used the Exodus motif to argue for the need for oppressed communities to create their own space separate from the oppressors whereby they can formulate their own identity. Cones construct in some ways speaks of the first stage of Black Liberation but does not address the inevitable social-structural demands that the oppressed community will have to, at some point, integrate (as American history proves for Blacks in America). In that case,  the New Exodus (Return from Exile) motifs in the Hebrew Bible envision a life of the inevitable integration. But, it offers a potential paradigm, whereby the former oppressors are integrated through a reversal motif in which their power differential has been deconstructed. Tracing then,  the Hebrew Bible's Return from Exile motifs through the trajectory of the NT, whereby it is fulfilled in the Son of Man's ministry, this paper offers another paradigm for racial justice in the Christian context.