Recently, controversy has occurred over whether public school students in BG should be able to opt-in for Bible education via an organization called LifeWise Academy. To be clear, this is not an organization that employs, to the best of my knowledge, scholars with degrees in any relevant field. Nor does its curriculum include any actual critical or insightful material or instruction into the Bible. Rather, the sample curriculum on its website looks like a poorly drawn up Sunday school lecture. In other words, it wouldn’t be worthwhile.
If students could opt into a Bible class, it should be one that focuses on an in-depth history and philosophy of the text, not what a special interest group has in mind. A good Bible class, say, for high school students, should introduce them to the methods of Higher Criticism and Textual Criticism. Likewise, it should include instruction in the Biblical languages (Ugaritic, Akkadian, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek) rather than solely replying upon the bad English translations that are responsible for the pervasive, poor understanding of Biblical theology in the world (.e.g. the idea that God “rested” after creation).
As far as building character goes, one can go see a Homeric play and develop character as the ancient Greeks were just as responsible for the development of Western thought as the Bible. That isn’t to say the Bible is not unique in its construction or its influence, just that if we’re going to talk about the “foundations of our culture” we need to include the Greeks as well.
Then there is the issue of Christian origins, which no organization like LifeWise will even attempt to venture at in a scholarly manner. To give a sample of the multiplicity of theories that have been presented over the eons, the Higher Critic Bruno Bauer noted that Christianity began as a blend of Philo of Alexandria’s Judaism and Stoicism. This, of course, is not something that LifeWise will teach students even as one viewpoint among many.
There is also the issue of whether those who want to attend instruction at say a Buddhist or Islamic institution should be able to do so if their peers can attend one based around the Bible. The answer to that question should be “yes”, since it would be favoritism and arbitrary to restrict such a privilege to Bible classes taught by evangelicals.
BGSU does not offer any classes on the Bible rooted in Higher and Textual Criticism so I am skeptical that a faith-based organization with no listed scholars as employees can do the job. BG itself is impoverished in terms of Biblical literacy as there are very few pastors or priests in the area who can recite a passage from the Bible in Hebrew or Greek or for that matter differentiate Arian from Aryan. Having an organization like LifeWise teach the Bible is a waste of everybody’s time.
Bill Kennedy IV
Bowling Green
