How to argue with your biblical studies teacher
Apr 10th, 2009 by Bryan
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Most of us who teach classes in college or in some churches have encountered that interesting personage: the argumentative student. It seems that I saw more of them early in my teaching career than I do now. This is probably caused in part by changes to the Furman student body or to the self-selecting group that signs up for one of my classes. However, I have also learned some hard lessons in interacting with students, and hopefully do a better job of helping them channel their frustrations into constructive questions rather than testy objections.I have been thinking about ways to expand my fall term Bible and Ultimate Meaning course to include an online component available to people outside the university. It occurred to me yesterday that one of the dangers of this would be having to interact with difficult people who are used to “internet arguments.” So I started thinking about writing a rubric for how to disagree or argue constructively with other students or your professor. What do you think should go in there?
Here is my first stab at a couple of principles.
Don’t lose the trees for the forest
In any course, there must be a certain level of “buy-in” from the students. This includes basic course design elements such as which course books are being used; which texts have been assigned for discussion; and what kinds of papers and tests there will be. The most important buy-in, however, concerns the basic methodological approach of the course. It is not helpful to spend a lot of time in a course arguing about whether the course itself should exist.
I experienced this in a college Religion and Literature course. There were a few students (senior religion majors feeling their oats) who wanted to argue every day about the definition of religion. What we needed was a working definition of religion for the purposes of the class so we could get on to discussing Annie Dillard.
I spend the first couple of days in an intro course explaining what academic biblical criticism is, and isn’t. I expect that students from a traditional religious background might have some discomfort with the “scientific” assumptions behind biblical scholarship. I am happy to discuss the basic issues with them in my office, but in class I want to move on to the actual course content rather than spend time justifying the existence of academic Bible study. [Here is one page that describes the basic conflict, from religioustolerance.org. Also, though this will make Jim West apoplectic, the Wikipedia entry isn't terrible, although it focuses too narrowly on source criticism.*]
So, how should one argue with the professor about basic assumptions of biblical scholarship? Instead of objecting philosophically to the whole idea, argue about whether the approach being taken does a good job of accounting for the biblical texts you’re reading. Spend time exposing the reductionistic tendencies of source criticism, the reverse biases of ideological criticism, historical-critical myopia and so on. Instead of wishing the forest away, start whacking away at some trees. That would actually be helpful to other students, and if you do it with some consideration and humility, will make your teacher very happy.
Heaven knows that there are a lot of problems, unanswered questions, and inconsistencies in biblical studies. That does not
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Argue with confidence out of your own analysis
I see two very different problems in class. First, many students feel overwhelmed by the material and not up to the task of arguing about it with any intelligence. They sometimes object to me privately that they have never read the Bible before and so are way behind everyone else. To that, I say two things: 1) the other students by and large haven’t read the Bible either, whether or not they went to church growing up, and 2) the best student I ever had in an intro course was a young woman from Bombay, India. She initially had only a vague idea of who Jesus was, but did wonderfully in the class.
I design my courses so that students have the resources they need to do the work that I assign. Dive into the material with confidence and a bit of tenacity and you will do fine.
Second, some students take the opposite approach and make arguments about the Bible based on their prior knowledge or views. They think they know what the Adam and Eve story is about, for example, so they find very little to interest them in a feminist counter-reading or Buying Pletal Online Without Prescription Cilostazol Cortisol is a stress hormone secreted by the adrenal cortex in higher levels during the body`s "fight or flight" response to stress. discount prices on pletal It is responsible for several stress-related changes in the body including blood pressure increase, insulin release, and glucose metabolism. low cost pletal now Childhood trauma may elevate the production of stress hormones, including cortisol, to higher levels. buy pletal online without rx Buying Pletal Online Without Prescription how much does pletal cost The authors conducted the study by recruiting 113 people with CFS and 124 other people without CFS as a control group from a general population of 19,381 adult residents living in Georgia, the United States. discount prices on pletalBuying Pletal Online Without Prescription, Buy Pletal Online Without Rx, Buy Pletal Online, They also discovered that participants with CFS had very low levels of cortisol.
This is how things should work: Before class, we all read a particular passage carefully, take some notes on it, and do secondary reading from a textbook or article. Then, in class we talk about that passage in light of earlier course material, of secondary reading, and of the discussion questions I offer. We do not meet so that students can talk about what they already know, but rather so that we can learn something new in conversation with each other.
So, how should one argue with the professor about a particular biblical text? If you have done the reading carefully, you should be able to argue about the details and nuances of the interpretation. The Adam and Eve story is a good example. In my opinion, no one reading of that story is entirely satisfactory. If you think that a feminist reading that minimizes the “sin” component of the story doesn’t work, be ready to talk about 1) the details of the feminist argument, and 2) the nuances of how this reading fits or doesn’t fit the details of the story.
Arguing about the interpretation of the story is great. Don’t assume that you cannot contribute because you are new to the text, and don’t assume that you already know everything you need to about Bible. Do the work, think carefully, and dig in with fresh energy and insight.
*In defense of my Wiki link, I wouldn’t need to link there if scholars would create more publicly available, accessible resources to explain this stuff to people. Let me know if you are aware of a link to a concise, accurate definition of academic biblical studies.
Image from The Situationist.
[...] definitely using this guide the next time I teach undergrads: Hevel.org: A Chasing after Wind » Blog Archive » How to argue with your biblical studies teacher: “Most of us who teach classes in college or in some churches have encountered that [...]
Wouldn’t it be great if all students read this and actually heeded these words of wisdom? How thoughtful classes would be. The classroom space could finally be the sanctuary that so many of us desire it to be, a place for good, honest, well-thought-out discussions and critical engagement. Thanks for helping us along on that path.
I would also add:
1. Don’t lose the forest for the trees. I often have one or two students who like to retreat into linguistic analysis to escape questions about the function of a certain pericope in the larger scope of a book. Not too often, but it happens.
2. When beginning to debate with the teacher, it is usually best not to begin with “I have always heard…,” “my pastor told me …,” or “my mom or dad always said….” Of course this is not a hard and fast rule, either, since it can sometimes lead to interesting class discussions on the history of interpretation. When used excessively, however, it becomes tedious.
3. Do not begin an argument by saying “but doesn’t the Bible say” if you do not have an appropriate chapter and verse citation. It leads to too many misunderstandings. Last semester, I had one student who said, “but doesn’t the Bible say, ‘God helps those who help themselves.’” Of course the same student offered various contributions to the class beginning with “but doesn’t the Bible say.”
P.S. I often find that those without prior knowledge to deconstruct do better with some of the introductory courses as well.
Thanks for the comments, guys. Thomas, the moments of good, honest discussion keep us going, don’t they? I think that most students are well-meaning, as are most professors. Sometimes we just need to adjust our thinking a little bit to get on the same page.
Thanks for the additions, Dave. I will definitely need to add a “don’t lose the forest for the trees” section. Also, I have a similar rule about using “The Bible says.” They need to say instead, “Paul says in Galatians,” or “Isaiah says to Ahaz,” etc. I once heard the pastor of large baptist church in town say in a televised sermon, “The Bible says, ‘Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.’”
[...] Student: Letters Posted on April 20, 2009 by anummabrooke Bryan Bibb’s recent post on “How to Argue with Your Biblical Studies Teacher” has me reflecting on that hatful of things I’d like my students to know about being a student. [...]
[...] Second, this elastic approach to the definition of religion allows us to just get on with it. I mentioned my frustration with people who cannot seem to get past the difficulty with defining religion long enough to actually talk about religion in my post on How to argue with your biblical studies teacher. [...]