Eternal Echoes-Reading the Bible as Literature
As a literary work the Bible contains accounts of our human struggle for life’s meaning and records of attempts to answer questions. Echoes of these accounts have influenced the human creative spirit finding expression not only in weekly exposition by clergy, but in poetry, novels, plays, paintings, sculpture and other media.
Four sections will serve as examples of how to approach the Bible as an literary anthology of human experience: The Creation Myth in Genesis, The Sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis, The Book of Jonah and The Book of Ruth.
These sections will be read in class and examined as literature, examined against historical background and how they have found reverberations in the human experience.
Nicolas Behrmann is an ordained rabbi having a B.H.L. and M.A.H.L from the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio. As an educator, counselor and preacher, he has devoted a lifetime to listening to these eternal echoes opening up the Bible for others as literature of human experience.