MORE THAN WORDS: PREACHING THROUGH ART (BSHM-3000)

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to preaching through various artistic mediums. Students will read and analyze selected biblical texts in their historical, social, and political contexts and use different artistic mediums to construct interpretations of these particular texts. The use of art will help students construct interpretations from different perspectives and different social locations leading to a deeper reflection and addressing ethical and moral issues relevant to our contemporary context. Various artistic forms will be engaged such as movement, drama, poetry, music, song, painting etc. Preaching using artistic mediums achieves an analogous effect in retelling narratives and bringing to surface the silent and invisible voices that have often been ignored in our written analysis of the texts. This course will seek to expand the genre of text to include other artistic mediums as texts that attempt to decenter the written word where the rules of interpretation are not predetermined for the audience. This is an upper-level course and requires Introduction to Hebrew and Christian Scriptures as prerequisites. Course meets Tuesdays, 10/22/24-12/13/24.