Click the above image to View Photo Gallery

God, Genesis and the Human Community [S-17-28]

The provocative collection of books we call the Bible can excite and sometimes inflame its readers as well as confuse those who are trying to use it as a how-to answer book. Regardless of where we fall on the chart of readers and non readers, there is great beauty and thought to be found in this library of writings that have been bound together over centuries into one book. The Bible is an amazing study in human suffering and resilience and in Pat’s opinion well worth the time we put in to consider its many messages. This brief introductory class is designed around the more familiar book of Genesis, with a goal of giving these first stories a sense of place in history, along with a peek into the communities of people who told and retold these stories. There are many voices in the Bible, and they do not always agree. We will consider why this is so, and hopefully immerse ourselves in the curiosity that the ancient peoples felt as they tried to understand their place in the world that often seemed harsh and incomprehensible!

Pat Lennox is a retired licensed local Pastor who served in the United Methodist Church for the past fifteen years. She has discovered for herself that reading the Bible in the context of the multiple time periods over which it was written has better prepared her to accept it on its own terms without a twenty-first century overlay of interpretation.

NOTE: Read Genesis Chapter 1 – Chapter 9 verse 17 before coming to class.

Cap: 40 (changed on: 03/10/17)