Jesus Creed
I don’t tell this story for any reason other than to offer a kategoria for why I think Biblical Literacy is a fundamentally important part of being an excellent teacher of Literature, in whatever language, at whatever level, regardless of what your personal religious or spiritual beliefs may be. Some of these reasons include:
1. The bible is still the best selling book of all time.
2. It has played a fundamental shaping role in the development of western literature.
3. For genre studies there are types of literary writing for which the bible presents the earliest example we still have, or the largest example from such an early period: think parable, and some of the wisdom writings in the very least.
4. The watershed in historical and literary terms of the Gutenberg Bible, the King James Authorised Version and even the link between contemporary literary and translations such as the Message means that to ignore it entirely or to treat it with contempt is inconsistent with good literary critical practice.
5 . To me it’s more than just a book, but it’s a darn good book! the narrative shape has been influential in both content and style on generations of authors and on us as readers; whether people are responding in positive or negative terms it is part of the grammar of western societies. One misses so much when you haven’t read the key texts. This is essential for you as a teacher, and for your students!If you like your job as a teacher of literature (and i’m sure you do!) and you want to do the best by your students, I would strongly encourage you to put some time and effort into increasing your literacy of the bible.
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