Sacred Book, Secular Community
I teach the Bible as literature at a liberal secular college in one of the most ethnically, economically, and culturally diverse cities in the country. In a typical Bible as Literature class at my institution, about half the students identify as religious and half do not. Among the religious, there are mostly Jewish, Buddhist, and modern-pagan students, plus Christians of every stripe, including young adults from Christian families who no longer identify as Christian because of painful experiences with church people using the Bible to shame and condemn others.
Encountering The Bible in a diverse social environment is invigorating. You quickly discover how few people share your assumptions. If you value community, you figure out how to talk to them. Many encounter the Bible at Temple or in Church, surrounded by like-minded readers. Homogeneous environments--religious or irreligious, conservative or liberal--make it appear that your particular way of thinking is “right” or “normal.” Outside your tribe, however, your thinking can sound alien and, sometimes, disturbing. If you’re adventurous, this pluralism is intriguing. If you’re fearful, it can be distressing. If you identify as religious, you may think that everyone should respect the authority of the Bible. If you identify as atheist or agnostic, you may think that intellectuals cannot take the Bible seriously or that the Bible contains harmful homophobic or misogynist propaganda. No matter what your background or worldview, you can appreciate the Bible as literature, and share your insights about the Bible with others, like-minded or not. You don’t need to be religious to appreciate Shakespeare and you don’t need to be religious to appreciate the Bible.
I enjoy facilitating conversation between atheists and theists, and across cultural groups that the media portray as enemies. I get to listen as queer students discuss the Bible with students raised by Baptist pastors who believe that queer experience is sinful when lived out loud. I’ve listened as religious objectors to abortion and abortion access advocates engage in respectful discussion about the value of life. If these students can transcend their cultural and ideological differences enough to communicate, so can anyone. When goodwill, curiosity, and respect for community guide conversation, people with radically divergent worldviews can have fruitful discussions. Approaching the Bible as literature helps relax its tight connection to specific faith traditions and challenge its caricature in atheist diatribes against religion. Viewed through a literary lens, the Bible allows atheists, theists and everyone in between to consider matters of religion, spirituality, beauty, ethics, history, gender, power, community, ethnicity, love, hate, and everything else that matters.
Regardless of worldview, people benefit from reading the Bible--both the Hebrew Bible (which Christians call the “Old” Testament) and the Christian Scriptures (which Christians call the “New” Testament)—simply because of its profound influence on so many cultures. Since my home faith tradition is Christian, when I refer to the Bible, I mean the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Scriptures together, but when I refer to those components of the Christian Bible separately, I use the terms Hebrew Bible and New Testament, in an effort to be culturally sensitive. I also practice cultural sensitivity by not assuming that God is real for everyone who reads the Bible. Those of us who are religious need to understand that nonreligious people also have an interest in the Bible and can read it capably.
As the best-selling, most-translated and, arguably, most influential collection of literary classics in the world, the Bible belongs to everyone--not just religious people. The Bible offers thrilling narrative, memorable characters, and essential wisdom to all its readers, including atheists, agnostics, and spiritual-but-not-religious people. Since there is already plenty of Bible commentary that assumes belief in God, I’m interested in exploring what the stories might mean for people who don’t believe in God or who don’t think about God. You don’t have to consider God real or the Bible true to derive value from reading it. The Bible is packed with insight about everything that makes William Shakespeare or James Baldwin indispensable. If you value Shakespeare, Baldwin, Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, Saul Bellow, Toni Morrison, Sandra Cisneros, Louise Erdrich, Haruki Murakami, or any other celebrated author, you will find the Bible valuable for the same reasons: the world makes more sense in the light literature sheds on the project of being human.
If you come from an environment in which someone used the Bible to pull rank, activate shame, marginalize women, condemn LGBTQ people, or assert superiority over anyone else, I’m especially delighted to have you here. Welcome! It is amazing you are still willing to engage the Bible at all. My classrooms are filled with people who grew up reading the Bible but have left organized religion and avoided the Bible because someone in their family or faith community weaponized biblical writings to exclude, shame, or control someone else. Whatever your background, please know that here, the Bible will never be used to render anyone an outsider.
