New Journey Class: Encountering the Old Testament

10:45 am Sundays, April 23 – May 21 • Hybrid (Spellman Jr & Zoom)

In this five week hybrid series with Dr. Manfred Brauch, we will seek to engage the Old Testament, as well as to be engaged by it. We will survey the story of Israel and its faith traditions via an overview of its “birth” over the course of a 2000-year history, the content of the Old Testament, the great variety of its literature, its history and cultural contexts, its major themes, its importance for our understanding of the New Testament, it’s problematic dimensions for the Christian faith, and its continuing significance for Christian faith and life. Click here to register. Questions? Contact Jennie Clark.

April 23          Introduction

A Historical overview of Israel’s story and its faith traditions — within the larger context of the history of the ancient Near East — as expressed in the great variety of the “Library of books” that make up the Old Testament.

April 30          The Cultural/Social/Historical Contexts of the OT

In this session we will explore how the OT reveals that Israel’s history and faith traditions contain both aspects of it’s historical-cultural contexts and ways in which her faith, her understanding of the nature and purposes of God stands over against aspects of that context.

May 7             The “Problem” of the Old Testament

There are matters within Israel’s faith traditions and history – as articulated within various parts of the OT – that have raised serious issues and indeed objections throughout Christian history. Already within the OT, there are significant voices, especially in the prophetic literature, which raise objections to, and in some cases reject, theological convictions and religious/social practices in earlier eras of Israel’s story. That “critique” continues in the teaching and practices of Jesus and in the writings of his earliest followers. That reality raises the question: What are the implications of this “internal critique” for Christian life and faith and for our understanding of Scripture as “Word of God”?

May 14           The OT is Indispensable for Christian Faith and Life

Much of the New Testament is inexplicable apart from the faith traditions of Israel in which the NT is grounded, and which it completes. As Paul puts it, “Christ is the end (goal, climax, completion) of the law.” (Romans 10:4). We will explore the continuity within the unity of the Old and New Testaments.

May 21           The God of the Old Testament

In this final session we will explore the central understanding of the nature of God and God’s purposes for human life, as these emerge from the various dimensions of Israel’s faith traditions. It turns out that “the God of steadfast love and faithfulness”, revealed in the pages of the OT, is indeed the God whose nature is fully and completely disclosed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and that “the way of Jesus” is indeed the “way of Yahweh”.