Statements create debates
that bring us to new a
state (or status).
! ?
Questions create
conversations that launch
us on new quests.

From the place where we are right
Flowers will never grow
In the spring.
The place where we are right
Is hard and trampled
Like a yard.
But doubts and loves
Dig up the world
Like a mole, a plow.
And a whisper will be heard in the place
Where the ruined
House once stood.
Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai

Question 1:
What is the shape of the
biblical narrative?
(A pre-critical question)

Eden Heaven
Fall Salvation
History/
The world
Hell

Platonic Ideal Platonic Ideal
Fall Atonement,
purification
Into
Aristotelian Aristotelian
Real
Real
Hades

Pax Romana Pax Romana
Civilization,
Rebellion development,
into colonialism
barbarism Barbarian/ assimilation
pagan
world
Destruction,
defeat

Is there an
alternative
understanding?

sdrawkcab gnidaer
Rick Warren, Billy Graham, Charles Finney, John Wesley (or Calvin), Luther,
Aquinas, Augustine, Paul, Jesus
reading forwards
Adam, Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, John the Baptist, Jesus

Exodus: Liberation & Formation

Exodus: Liberation & Formation
Genesis: Creation and Reconciliation

Isaiah: Peaceable Kingdom - Justice and
Mercy
Exodus: Liberation & Formation
Genesis: Creation and Reconciliation

G
e
Isaiah: Peaceable Kingdom - Justice and
n
Mercy
e
s
i
s
Exodus: Liberation & Formation

HUMAN DESTRUCTION
G
e
Isaiah: Peaceable Kingdom - Justice and
n
Mercy
e
HUMAN VIOLENCE
s
i
s HUMAN EXPLOITATION
Exodus: Liberation & Formation

HUMAN DESTRUCTION
G
e
Isaiah: Peaceable Kingdom - Justice and
n
Mercy
e
HUMAN VIOLENCE
s
i
s HUMAN EXPLOITATION
Exodus: Liberation & Formation

Reading Paul in light of Jesus:
Acts 28:23 ff: “the kingdom of God ... and Jesus.”
“the kingdom of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Romans: “to the Jew first and also to the Greek ...”
Galatians 3:7 ff
Understand, then, that those who believe are children
of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would
justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the
gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be
blessed through you.” So those who have faith are
blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Question 2:
The Bible Question
What is the Bible?
Or: What is it for?

The Bible as
Constitution
• What purposes do constitutions (or social
contracts) fulfill?
• What problems arise with this approach?

Bible as Conversation
• The Bible as a cultural library
• Artifacts from stories within stories

LEGAL CONSTITUTION COMMUNITY LIBRARY
Uniformity Diversity
Preserve order Preserve diversity
agreement argument
enforcement encouragement

LEGAL CONSTITUTION COMMUNITY LIBRARY
Rules to live by Stories to live by
Conformity Creativity
Analyze, interpret, argue Enter, inhabit, practice
amendments? new acquisitions

Inspiration
• what would an inspired constitution look
like?
• what would an inspired community library
look like?

Question 3:
The God Question
Is God violent?
Why does God seem so violent in many Bible passages?

Revelation 19
I saw heaven standing open and there
before me was a white horse, whose rider
is called Faithful and True. With justice he
judges and makes war. His eyes are like
blazing fire, and on his head are many
crowns. He has a name written on him
that no one knows but he himself. He is
dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his
name is the Word of God.

Revelation 19
The armies of heaven were following him,
riding on white horses and dressed in fine
linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth
comes a sharp sword with which to strike
down the nations. "He will rule them with
an iron scepter." He treads the winepress
of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.
On his robe and on his thigh he has this
name written:
KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF
LORDS.

Revelation 11:15 ff
The seventh angel sounded
his trumpet, and there were
loud voices in heaven, which
said:
“The kingdom of the world
has become the kingdom of
our Lord an of his Christ,
and he will reign for ever
and ever.”