In a recent conversation with a friend, I started to dream about what a truly excellent high school Religious Studies curriculum might look like for a (somewhat) ecumenical Christian high school.
After some poking and prodding, this is what I came up with. I think it’s interesting enough to post here. If you happen to steal anything from my thoughts below, I’d be excited to know how it’s going!
What I’ve Seen
Before getting into the new plan, let me tell you what I’ve seen. Bible curricula seem to be somewhat standard for Christian private schools. That’s not to say that they are all the same, but just that they tend to focus on the same things during the 4 years that they have a given student. Here is a rather standard layout:
Freshman Year
This year is typically some sort of scriptural survey. Most often, I’ve seen Old Testament as the focus. Students become acquainted with the Old Testament, major figures within its story, and the overall arc of the Hebrew people and their relationship with God.
Sophomore Year
The sophomore year is usually a survey of the component missed in Freshman year. So, if Old Testament was studied Freshman year, then New Testament would be the focus here. Students will focus on the Gospels and Paul, mostly.
Junior Year
This year often seems to be focused on Apologetics and Christian Living. Students learn how to defend their faith with a variety of arguments that they memorize. Beyond that, some schools teach students how to apply the Bible to their lives — course titles like “Scripture and Daily Living” usually deal with this.
Senior Year
Most often, I’ve seen “worldviews” or “world religions” courses on this level. The hope is to prepare a student for the non-Christian, wild environs of college by acquainting them with various religions and philosophies. Often, the student will be taught what is “wrong” with those religions and philosophies.
My Proposal
In reaction to all of this, I’ve come up with a system of my own (with the help of a few close friends). Here’s the basic layout:
Freshman Year – How to Read the Bible
A low-level, low-grade, friendly hermeneutics course that introduces the student to different modes and methods for reading the Bible.
(a) Historical Context — The student should understand the role that historical context plays in interpretation. The student will learn to recognize how historical context affects the application of Scripture to our daily lives.
(b) Literary Context — The student will read Scripture with an attentive eye to its literary context. What genre is the text? Why does genre matter? How does the literary situation and attitude of the text affect our interpretation and application?
(c) Biblical Context — The student will understand a text within the greater context of the Bible. How does this text fit in with the Biblical metanarrative? How does it relate to other texts that speak to similar issues? How does understanding this text within the larger metanarrative affect our interpretation and application?
Throughout this course, the student would be taught how to use different tools for Bible study. These tools might include: concordances, cross-references, commentaries, etc.
In effect, this is step one toward equipping the student with the skills necessary to read, understand, interpret, and apply the Bible for themselves in an intelligent and coherent manner.
Sophomore Year – Old Testament & New Testament Survey
Part one of this course would explore the Old Testament. The focus should be on two major aspects of the text:
(a) The Broad Historical Movement of the Israelite People — The student will understand the major historical narrative of the Israelite people and their relationship to God.
(b) Tanakh — In order to achieve (a), the teacher will need to give the students a broad understanding of the different portions of the Hebrew Scriptures. This can best be conveyed by the Hebrew acronym Tanakh: Torah, Prophets, Writings.
At the end of part one of this course, the student will be prepared to understand the broad, general issues involved in the narrative of the Hebrew Bible, thus preparing them for the next portion of the class: New Testament.
During the second portion of this course, the student will explore the New Testament. The focus will be on two major sections:
(a) The Gospel Narrative — The student will understand the narrative of the life of Jesus and dip his/her toe into issues such as the “Synoptic Problem” and the place of the Gospel of John in the “fourfold truth.”
(b) The Teachings of Paul — The student will focus on Paul’s interpretation of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection and how that has informed his theology, Christology, philosophy, and missiology.
Because the student will have the Old Testament fresh in his/her mind, the writings of the New Testament should be understood within their Jewish context.
All of the knowledge from the freshman course should also be utilized. Texts should be examined based on their historical, literary, and Biblical contexts. The student will also use these different modes of reading to understand different ways that Scripture can apply to modern contexts.
Junior Year – Church History
In order to fully equip the student to understand Christianity and its place in today’s world, the student must understand how Christianity grew from a small cult in a backwater province of the Roman Empire to the major world religion that it is today. In effect, the student should understand the movement of the Gospel.
This course is divided into two major parts.
Part one addresses Jewish antecedents and the movement of the Gospel to Rome. In effect, the student will become increasingly familiar with the Jewish context in which Christ, Paul, et al. operated, and then track the movement of the Church from Jerusalem to Rome. In terms of chronology, this portion of the course ends with the Council of Nicaea.
Part two takes the student from Nicaea up through the Reformation, hitting important church councils and schisms along the way. The student will understand the growth of the Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox traditions and the major controversies that created these divisions.
At the end of this course, the student will be able to
(a) recognize the triumphs and shortcomings of various styles of church leadership,
(b) articulate the narrative of the movement of the Gospel from Jerusalem to the globe in accordance with Jesus’ “Great Commission,”
(c) discuss the production/creation/alteration of canon, orthodoxy, orthopraxy, Christology, and theology,
(d) analyze texts written by major church figures throughout history (e.g., Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, etc.).
Senior Year (Part One) – Philosophies and World Religions
The senior course is divided into two parts. The first part will deal with philosophies and religions of the world. This course surveys the various philosophies, religions, worldviews, etc. that are prevalent today. Topics might include: Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Mormonism, as well as secular humanism, moral relativism, etc.
During this course, the student will
(a) understand the similarities and differences between major philosophies and religions,
(b) read and interpret portions of the Scriptures and foundational texts of these philosophies and religions,
(c) consider and articulate their own position/worldview.
Senior Year (Part Two) – Exegesis
The final course is an intensive exegesis course. This course will be designed to build on all of the skills from all of the previous Bible courses and then apply those skills to the reading and interpretation of a single Biblical text.
During this course, the student will
(a) read and interpret an entire Biblical text with in-depth analysis,
(b) use research tools such as dictionaries and commentaries to aid them in their interpretation,
(c) articulate how this Biblical text speaks to the various religions and worldviews studied in part one,
(d) understand the work within its historical, literary, and Biblical contexts,
(e) appropriately apply portions of the text to a modern context.
My vision for this part of the course is that the selection of the text to be studied should be examined afresh for each Senior Class. The selection of the text should be made by the teacher with the help of the Chaplain, the Student Chaplain, and the Spiritual Life Committee.
Conclusion & Your Thoughts
I realize that this is an awful lot to cram into four years. My overall goal is to equip students to read, understand, and interpret the Bible for themselves. In order for them to do that, I think that they need three major things:
- Knowledge of the Bible and its various contents and the genres of those contents.
- History, so that they can understand how the texts have been used and abused by various groups throughout their history.
- Tools that they can turn to to aid them in their search for understanding.
My hope would be twofold:
- That we present colleges with biblically literate students who are ready to jump into the Western canon of literature and understand how the Bible has informed most major Western thinkers since the Middle Ages.
- That we equip students to take command of their own faith, think for themselves, and make their own decisions about what and how they believe. Furthermore, I’d love to see students articulate their faith (or lack thereof) in an honest manner, rather than putting on the mask that they think teachers want.
So, what are your thoughts? Is this possible? Is this pie-in-the-sky? Is this horrible? I’m curious.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Stephen Hebert, Withering Fig. Withering Fig said: New blog post: Christian High School Bible Curriculum: A Proposal http://bit.ly/5pDWG9/ [...]
It is nice to have access to the Internet again! You have hit this very well. But, here is a point as it relates to your post. And, I was wondering if you emailed this post to your bible colleagues, I would love to hear from them.
My point: Why not devote one semester during the Freshman year to the OT survey and a semester to NT survey, which then allows more room to explore more subject matter.
Carson — My colleagues received a hard copy of this during a recent meeting. I’ve done some minor changes since then, but it has not been discussed yet.
There are a couple of thoughts behind delaying the OT/NT Surveys:
(1) At some point I think the student needs to learn different methods for reading these texts (you can call it “hermeneutics,” but it’s really much more rudimentary than that). I’m sure this can be done on the fly, but I’m not sure if it can be done in a survey setting where we are trying to get the bird’s-eye-view of what these materials contain.
(2) There is a desire from up on top to have the courses become increasingly academic as the student progresses through the program. Therefore, the Freshman course needs to be less academic, less rigorous than the rest.
That being said, I’d love to find a way to free up some more room in the schedule. If OT/NT Survey were done freshman year, then perhaps the senior year could be elective courses. Or, we could find something else entirely to do with the added year available.
Through one part accident and one part frustration (namely, Carson’s comment being marked as spam), I deleted a comment by Edward Carson on this post. Here is the text of that comment:
And here is my response:
“My point: A school is a school and a church is a church. It seems that if expectations for academics are low the first year they will continue to be low.”
Couldn’t agree more. The desire for a less academic feel in the lower level courses was an idea that was placed in our laps from up above. At the moment, I don’t see that changing.
It seems to me that an academically challenging institution should be academically challenging from top-to-bottom, no matter what department you’re in.
As someone who is teaching 9th and 10th grade Bible at what I would describe as a conservative, evangelical Christian school, I definitely like the idea of a Bible program that is (at least) academically on par with the “core” classes.
However, at least based on my experience, I am not sure that you can roll OT/NT Survey into one year. I teach OT to the 9th and NT to the 10th, and I am constantly shocked/appalled/depressed by the lack of basic Bible knowledge, with occasional exception of the good ol’ Southern Baptist kid who has been in Sunday School his whole life, or the student who did AWANA growing up. Yet, I simply don’t have enough time to cover everything that I feel like Christian high school students should know, especially from the OT.
Of course, I am also trying to integrate what looks like your 9th grade hermeneutics goals as I go through each section of Scripture, but I would still humbly suggest that there may be some value in giving the students a basic (one-year) overview of the Bible before the hermeneutics class. Or maybe it’s just a chicken-and-egg issue.
@Robert Gibbs – Thanks so much for your comment. I especially appreciate your perspective as someone who is actually teaching in this field. (And I’d love to add you to my Rolodex as a contact/support).
I completely agree that 1 semester for an overview of the OT and then 1 semester for an overview of the NT is inadequate. When our department researched other schools, however, we found that this was fairly common. As I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that 1 year is really insufficient to introduce the student to all of the stuff that we want them to get out of the OT (and the same goes for the NT).
So, how to solve this problem? Well, my “solution” focuses on building skills that will equip the student to read and understand on his/her own.
I do think it’s a chicken-and-egg issue, honestly. The problem is extremely circular:
- In order to understand hermeneutics, students need a certain amount of Biblical knowledge.
- In order to understand the Bible, students need certain hermeneutical skills.
So, where do you start?
Maybe your solution is best: integrate hermeneutics as you go. I believe that is what our department does at the moment. My fear, though, is that the student might have difficulty categorizing different hermeneutical modes and methods because there is not enough focus on those operations (since the focus is probably MORE on the Biblical knowledge).
BUT, maybe you (or someone else out there) have a different whiz-bang solution to this whole conundrum.
Thanks again!
[...] friend and colleague Stephen Hebert has been discussing the direction of our Bible Department on his blog; he wrote a post regarding what he deems to be the best direction for a department teaching [...]
1. Before I make some comments about the training of young minds in school what is your thoughts that the students should learn to read New Testament Greek?
2. What is your thoughts about the people list in Romans the last chapter. Who were they and where did they come from and where did they go after their encounter with Paul? Can they be found in secular history?
Jerry Collins
@Jerry
Re: #1 – Honestly, I think forcing ancient Greek upon high school students would be met with open rebellion in the classroom. Ha!
Re: #2 – To me, it sounds like Paul is sending an entourage before him to Rome. This goes along with the idea that Romans is a letter of introduction, paving the way for Paul’s future ministry there (at this point, he’s not been to Rome).
What happened to these people? Not sure. “After their encounter with Paul” it appears they went to Rome! What happened there? I don’t know. I’d have to consult a good commentary on Romans to see if there’s any information about any of them in “secular” history.
.-= Stephen Hebert’s last blog: "Gadamer and Harkness" =-.
Hi there.
I just googled the issue and found your post. I am very passionate about this goal. I have taught at a christian high school for 6 years (physics and psychology) and my degree is in bible and theology. I have the following plan that I thought would be good- compare:
9th- intro to christianity.
10th- into to the bible.
11th- ot/nt
12th- electives: theology/ spirituality
missions/ ministry
apologetics/ world religions
Here are my justifications for each year:
9th- this is my hope of TRULY having an ecumenical program that is not just bible, but christianity as a whole. It deals with church history, worship, and the place of the bible and bible studies. It correlated well to a freshman level history class.
10th- I feel very strongly that the hermaneutical abilities are far more foundational and critical and deserve primary focus (i.e. their own year prior to any content study). The actual “what’s in the bible” can always be filled in later in life.
11th- yes, it is obviously a total cram if you plan on being exhaustive. But so is teaching the entire world of physics in one year! A high level overview is all that this should be- and yet from an academic standpoint. Juniors can handle this simultaneously fast pace, and deep reach.
12th- it’s ok if they take one and not the other (no theology for instance). The church should be providing these items anyway (whereas, depending on the tradition, I don’t expect it should for the former three items). Not to say they aren’t valuable- Let the seniors go way deep here! Otherwise, perhaps a semester approach to these elevtives is possible, I’m open here.
I have planned on writing and publishing a curriculum that covers the 9th and 10th info asap. I have some work done. I would love feedback on this as well.
Thanks for your post.
I have been teaching for eight years in a christian high school. I agree with your initial thought of many schools teach the same type of curriculum. I am working on my disertation and I want to explore the possiblilites of making a change in the Christian school. I am very conservative, but realize that we could do a much better job reaching our youth. Any curriculum I have found online is either outdated, or would not reach my students.Their is another issue with the bible background of the students in each class. We have students who have no Bible knowledge and are lost when it comes to any Bible knowledge.
Your comments grabbed my attention and this is why I have posted.
Bob
As a former Christian high school principal and teacher I can say that the integration of the Bible and Christian thought into all subjects far outweighs the survey courses devoted exclusively to the Bible and the Christian life. In my school the entire student body memorized a chapter of the Bible every month. We read the chapter each morning and then one of the staff talked about one or two of the verses for a few minutes. At the end of the month each student recited the chapter from memory aloud. More former students have remarked about the spiritual efficacy of those exercises than any of the several Bible courses they took.
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How did your school integrate “the Bible and Christian thought into all subjects”? What did this look like?
Hi! Just like jacob, I googled the topic “high school bible curriculum” and yours was the first listing! Congratulations! I’m extremely excited and challenged by the idea of presenting intro hermeneutics to 9th graders, especially with as weak as mine seem in basic bible skills. We were going to do “Experiencing God” (not my idea, but the principal’s) but I think the kids need an overall “how’s the Bible laid out and how do I study it beyond liking the cool/cruel stories like the teenagers poking fun at Elisha.” I love the idea. I’m willing to give it a try. It’s far superior than dumping information into students’ brains and hoping some of it sticks.
Forgot to add. My Christian high school is related to a “nondenominational” area church (which are rarely nondenominational), so it’s not an ecumenical setting, but I do feel support for such a program as you propose, at least for the jurisdiction I have over a 9th grade Bible class. Were I the principal or department head, I’d make sweeping changes related to what you proposed. Did you find support with the administration for your proposal?
My proposal didn’t really make it out of a department meeting. So, the administration never even saw it.
Hey!
I am currently studying biblical studies and education in the hopes of becoming a Bible teacher. I just wanted to say that I have been searching for ANY decent curriculum guide to help me plan stuff and have literally not found anything remotely usable, until now! I am so thankful to have stumbled upon this; I think this is exactly the layout for how Bible curriculum should be taught, and Christian schools should really be taking heed of this. I am sorry that your ideas were not appreciated by others at your school, but I think that this kind of thing is what people like me are looking for. So don’t give up! I definitely plan on using this layout to base courses on in the future, so thank you! :)
Well, let me now how it goes, Stephanie. If you need anyone to bounce ideas off of, feel free to get in touch with me.
I have taught Bible for many years and have never been satisfied with published curriculums (wrong term, I know). But, I need a new Bible program 9-12 that does a better job of preparing students for adulthood. We do 9- OT/NT survey 10-Acts & Church Hist 11- sem of Marriage and Family Relations/World religions 12 World views Summit Ministries. Any body have suggestions for curricululm materials?
I have been reading and enjoying the comments on this subject. I am looking at teaching a high school class using the Secondary Curriculum from Precept Ministries. Is anyone familiar with this?
I have not done much to search for Bible curriculums online until now. I spent 22 years as a Christian school administrator, often teaching part-time in the areas of math and Bible. However, near then end of my years of service one of my Bible teachers came to me and asked this question: “Is there a Bible curriculum in which students simply read the Bible?” Wow! I had taught only a widely published curriculum, choosing what I thought was best for the school. It was a series of topical studies which we used — all from one publisher — for grades 7-12. So, as a result of that teacher’s question, and after eleven years work (mostly off-and-on during spare time, but mostly full time for about the past three years, we now offer Read Thru The Word Bible Curriculum, designed for use in grades 7-college. The curriculum takes students through the Bible cover-to-cover, reading the complete text of the Bible, at a pace of about 6 chapters per day, with a comprehension quiz the following day. Students complete the Bible in two school years, so ideally, they could do this program three times in three translations during grades 7-12. It is a complete program. See it at http://www.readthrutheword.com.
[...] Christian High School Bible Curriculum: A Proposal | Withering Fig Nov 20, 2009 … Sophomore Year – Old Testament & New Testament Survey. Part one of this course would explore the Old … [...]
I’m really appreciating all the comments here, thanks folks!
I completely feel your proposal is achievable! I know many Christian schools that teach at that level. I teach Bible at a small Christian school in Iowa, and spend quite a lot of time researching other schools’ curriculum and Bible standards. This year I’m implementing the Methods of Bible Study Skills. While our school has placed a lot of emphasis on Apologetics/worldview, our students (and many in the church) lack the skills necessary to actually study the Bible. If I had my way, this is what the 4 years of HS Bible would look like: 9th: Theology; 10th: Bible Study Skills; 11th: Church History; 12th: Apologetics & Worldviews.
Thanks for your thoughtful post!
P.S. Know of any Church History books and/or curriculum great for HS? Would you recommend Noll’s book, Turning Points for HS?
thanks
Hi, I also stumbled onto your post by google. I am in my 3rd year undergrad in Biblical Studies and also in the process of planting a church. I have the opportunity to teach Bible at the local Christian school this year. I am somewhat perplexed in how/what to teach. I have been straining my brain on what to do. I graduated from this school in 2000 and at best the Bible class that was taught then was basically memorizing a small portion of scripture a week, maybe 3 or 4 verses. There was no hermeneutical method taught, no background, no information on the author, no theological standpoints made, just learning Scripture. I know the importance of memorizing scripture and believe that should be a major part of the christian student’s life as the normal everyday Christian. I am leaning now of teaching some type of intro to NT or OT or both and pointing out Theological points made within the books. Another hard thing is that the school is very small. I will be teaching either 8-10 grade or 11 and 12 grade at the same time. Therefore, I have a broad range of learning abilities to deal with. My main focus in the class will be to deliver the Gospel continually. In our context, many of the student have made “professions of faith” but are not truly regenerated, as I was for many years. I want to be evangelistic in my teaching as well as theologically sound.
Beautiful thinking! I love it! Wish I had read this about 4 years ago. I would have started doing it with my (now) Junior. I also thin this would be great to start in 7th grade. Then it wouldn’t be so hard to get it all in.
I am curious as to how you would structure the senior year part of your proposal? How would you do the Exegsis portion? how would you structure the class? Discussion ideas? Assignments? What were you thinking?
This is years late, but when you google Bible curriculum for Christian schools there just isn’t much…a bit ironic. Anyway, have you developed this further? With a high turnover rate at our MK boarding school in Kenya, we really could use a good curriculum. Or have you found anything else that is good? I like the way you are thinking. Thanks.
Thank you for sharing this!! I have been a Bible teacher for 2 years, and I have had the pleasure (slight sarcasm) of creating a Bible curriculum for my school. However, developing a useful curriculum has become my biggest passion! I am always looking for ideas of how to organize the studies… the biggest problem I’m finding is that I need to write curriculum for 7-12th. There are TONS of curriculums out there for elementary, but barely ANY for middle school. I feel like 7-8th graders are a little too young for any exegesis or even “intro to Bible”, but I don’t want to waste the years by just “dumping knowledge in and hoping it sticks.” Any ideas?? :)
I was prayerfully looking for a Bible curriculum that would really enhance our middle-high school students’ knowledge and practical application of the Bible. I am the Dean/Teacher at a private christian school in urban D.C. I am very encouraged and appreciate your educational approach to biblical studies. The perspicacity of your approach certainly outweighs any “tweeking” that may be needed. I always seek to challenge students to journey beyond the stereotyplical norms into the place of divine excellence. It’s work–but all things are possible with God. Thanks so much.