BIBLE CLASS

New Living the Questions Discussion Class

Our Desert Palms’ Monday afternoon Living the Questions weekly discussion class will have completed its 12 lecture Great World Religions series on Islam on March 1, and will be beginning a new series Great World Religions--Judaism on March 8, again led by Fred Berkenkamp.

Our six 90 minute sessions will be an intensive 12 lecture DVD-supported study of Judaism which precedes and parallels Islam, and is so foundational for our Christianity.  Judaism is presented from within as it was understood by its adherents in the past and by those who practice Judaism today.

For a sound and provocative base, we will be utilizing the Teaching Companies? Great Books Course material on Great Religions--Judaism, developed by Dr. Isaiah M Gafni, Ph.D., Professor  of Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Gafni has written or edited 14 books on various aspects of Jewish history, as well as numerous scholarly articles, including more than 100 entries in the Encyclopedia Judaica. He has devoted much effort to the dissemination of Jewish historical knowledge on a popular level, as well.

He will inform us on the significance of the diversity of Jewish self-definition throughout history. What is the essence--or uniqueness--of Judaism? Is it the 10 commandments, as something else entirely?

In Session One, we will discuss whether Judaism is indeed a religion in the same sense that Christianity and Islam are. We will also focus on the “shared memory” or “collective history” of the earliest stages of Judaism, primarily the biblical and immediately post-biblical periods.

In Session Two, we will explore the major components of the Jewish library, the underpinnings of Jewish belief and practice. We will focus on why Judaism as it is practiced today appears to be so different from the religion of the Hebrew Bible, including the reformulation of tradition and practice in the wake of the destruction of the Jewish temple by the Romans in 70 A.D.

In Session Three, we will explore the numerous ways in which Judaism manifests itself in  the lives of its adherents on a personal level. We will be introduced to the way Jews worship and the yearly cycle of the Jewish calendar.

In Session Four we will discuss the outstanding events and rites of passage in a Jewish individual’s lifetime. We will examine more fully what Jews believe to be the nature of their relationship with God, both as individuals and as members of a distinct community.

In Session Five, we will examine the variety of approaches embraced by Jewish thinkers re their understanding of how the world functions and what man’s role in the world should be. Philosophers and mystics serve as a major focus. We will then investigate the legal aspects of Judaism, both sacred and secular, incl. Halakha, among other branches of the contemporary Jewish community.

In Session Six, we will explore the phenomenon of diversity in the world of Judaism, and why this did not lead to total fragmentation and irreparable schisms. We will close with the role and perception of “others” in Jewish thought, and the tension between universalism and particularism, between God the Creator of the world, and God who redeemed Israel from Egypt, a constant factor not only in the Bible but also in ongoing Jewish thought.  

Note: Cost of Course Guidebook will be $6 incl. shipping and handling.

Leader: Fred Berkenkamp

Place: Room A

Time: Mondays, 3 p.m.

For those interested and not already in the prior LTQ class, kindly let Rachel Randall or Church Office know.