Summer 2019
"Themes from the Old Testament"

Description

Our Summer Bible Series is an opportunity for adults and young adults who want to renew or expand their understanding of Scripture. The series is presented by highly qualified scripture scholars but is appropriate for participants with little or limited understanding of the Bible.

In this four-week series, Dr. John Waldmeier will guide participants will read and discuss some of the more memorable stories from the Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible).  Together, they will study ideas introduced in one story that are re-visited in others to create themes that weave in and out of this large, complicated, sacred text.  In each session, participants will talk about how the themes apply to our lives today.

Weekly Themes and Readings

Week 1: Stories of creation and re-creation

• Genesis chapters 1-9:  Creation and the Garden; Noah
• Exodus 1-2:22: The Birth of Moses

Week 2: Stories of God’s Appearance

• Exodus chapters 12:37-15:21: Crossing the Red Sea
• Joshua chapters 3-4: Crossing into the Promised land
• Exodus chapters 19-21: God and Moses at the Holy Mountain
• 1 Kings chapters 18-19: Elijah, the Prophets of Baal, and the Holy Mountain

Week 3: Stories of Palace Intrigue

• 2 Samuel chapters 1-2:7; chapters 5-6; chapters 11-19: King David’s Household
• Book of Esther

Week 4: Stories of Arguing with God

• Genesis chapter 18: Abraham, Sodom, and Gomorrah
• Jeremiah chapter 20: Jeremiah’s Lament to God
• Job chapters 1-7; chapters 30:20- 31; chapters 38-40:5
• Psalm 44
• Exodus chapter 3

Audience

This program is appropriate for adults and young adults who know a lot about the bible and for those who are just learning. 
It is particularly appropriate for adults and young adults in thresholds 3, 4, 5 and 6 of faith development.
> Click here to learn more about the thresholds of faith develoment.

Take-Away

Adults and young adults who participate in this opportunity will:
• Understand particular events and people in the Old Testament corpus.
• Identify underlying themes which unite these various events and people.
• Discover how these events and people from the Old Testament shape our faith and lives in
  today's world.

About the Presenter

Dr. John Waldmeir is Professor of Religious Studies and Theology at Loras College, where he also edits the publication series “Spiritual Life in the Upper Mississippi River Valley” for the Archbishop Kucera Center for Catholic Intellectual and Spiritual Life.  Dr. Waldmier received his Ph.D. in Religion and Literature from the University of Chicago and has taught at Catholic colleges in Detroit and Bismarck, North Dakota.  Dr. Waldmeir has been at Loras for twenty-two years, and has taught courses in Catholic identity, sacred scriptures, world religions, and religious traditions within the United States.   He has published six books, including Cathedrals of Bone--The Role of the Body in Contemporary Catholic Literature (2009) and (with David Cochran) The Catholic Church in Ireland Today (2015).  Most recently, he has published a book on Muslim American literature titled In-Between Identities--Signs of Islam in Contemporary American Writing (2018).  For 2019-20, he will share the John Cardinal O’Connor Chair in Catholic Thought with colleague Scott Scheuerell, and the two will complete an educational series on local women religious in the Civil Rights Movement.

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Registration
• By phone: call 319-233-0498.
• By email: dbqwcaf@dbqarch.org
• Online: Click here to register online

Last Update: 05.21.19