Professor: Leslie Virnelson

A six-session course on the book of Judges Spring 2024 Old Testament Study (The Book of Judges) with Dr. Daniel Stulac A six-session course on the book of Judges “No other book of the Bible is quite so R-rated. No other book is quite so ugly or grotesque. Judges offers its reader not a roster …
View course details “The Book of Judges with Dr. Daniel Stulac”

What is the New Testament’s Vision of Our Mission and Ministry? In this course, we will look again at what key parts of the New Testament have to say about the assemblies of Jesus’ disciples, which we call the church. We will explore what these assemblies were, what they did, and why they did it. …
View course details “A People’s Theology of the Church”

This course explores the pertinence of the message of the prophets of ancient Israel for contemporary issues through reading, exegesis, and preaching. We will read significant parts of prophetic literature, asking how literary, historical, and theological lenses provide ways to see, preach, and teach its messages. We will also learn from classic preachers (e.g. John …
View course details “Preaching the Prophets”

This course is a survey course of prophets in Ancient Israel and the texts of the prophets of the Hebrew Bible. Studying the language of the prophetic corpus, we will explore the historical, social, and political contexts of the writings and their meanings for the intended audience and readers today. By the end of the …
View course details “The Prophets”

How-to Bible is a high-energy introduction to the content and context of Scripture. It is designed for those new to the faith and lifelong Episcopalians who have never cracked the spine. If you’ve ever tried to read the Bible but quit somewhere in the middle of Leviticus, if you’ve ever been very confused by the …
View course details “How to Bible”

This course will explore the combination of literary and conceptual elements of the most intriguing of Gospels. The gospel displays a wide variety of literary techniques, many associated with ancient drama, and it engages the reader with complex theological issues about how God is known, about what God has done in the life and death …
View course details “Salvific Drama in the Gospel of John”

Don’t we just pick up the Bible and read it? What are various ways of interpreting the text and why do these methods matter? With attention to texts of the Hebrew Bible, this class offers an introductory sampling of different approaches in biblical studies, reading with feminist, disability, African, queer, and childist lenses. Course elements …
View course details “The Joy of Text: Reading the Bible with Liberating Lenses”

The Song of Songs, or “Song of Solomon,” is among the strangest books of the Bible. It is difficult to translate, hard to understand, and impossible to reconcile with moralistic styles of religious belief. The title of the course, “Locksmithing,” alludes to a famous Jewish saying that sums up both the enigma and attraction of …
View course details “Locksmithing: Unlocking the Song of Songs”

This course explores the person of Jesus and how he has been understood through the ages. We begin with the representations of Jesus in the Gospels, study how the early church made sense of Jesus as a God-man, and look at how people see Jesus today. We will also see how the doctrine of Christ …
View course details “Christology Ancient and Modern”