Bible Literacy Project News
Another Kind of Bible Study
American Educator
Spring 2008
 While college courses on the Bible's
importance in history and literature are quite common, such classes
typically aren't taught in high school. Yet, with all the references to
the Old and New Testament in both classical and modern texts, they very
well could be.
The Bible Literacy Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization,
dedicated to the academic study of the Bible in secondary schools, has
published a textbook on the Bible for grades 9 through 12, along with a
teacher handbook. Entitled, The Bible and Its Influence, the book was
released in September 2005 and is the first textbook designed to meet
constitutional standards for public school use. It has also been
reviewed by a panel of independent scholars from the Judeo-Christian
faith and various universities.
The nearly 400-page textbook covers the Bible's influence on
literature, art, music, and rhetoric, and is designed to be an elective
in English or social studies. The book is divided into two parts: the
Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. It also includes biblical
scenes represented in works of art, such as Leonardo da Vinci's Last
Supper, The Triumph of Judas Maccabeus by Peter Paul Rubens, and
Caravaggio's David and Goliath. Along with the textbook, students study
the actual Bible using a translation that each student chooses.
The Bible and Its Influence is a valuable resource for teachers who
want their students to understand biblical references they may encounter
inside and outside the classroom. According to the Bible Literacy
Project, those references are numerous: more than 1,300 biblical
references appear in Shakespeare's works, and more than 60 percent of
allusions in one Advanced Placement literature prep course are biblical
phrases.
To see if The Bible and Its Influence could supplement your
English or history lessons, visit
www.bibleliteracy.org
Source URL
http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/issues/spring2008/notebook.htm
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