In the summer of 2020, I decided, for various reasons, to abandon my efforts to earn a second M.A. degree. I had been engaged in the M.A. in Biblical Studies program at Trinity Western University starting in September 2018. While there were many things I enjoyed about my studies in the Religious Studies Department at TWU, the main draw was building new relationships with some truly exceptional people--faculty, staff, fellow grad students and undergrads. Truly, TWU, was the single most friendly place I've ever had the privilege to study and work. Then came the pandemic and my studies and my teaching--Introduction to the New Testament--had to go online. That, combined with the fact that my supervisor moved from Langley to Calgary to pursue other academic pursuits, meant there was nothing to hold me at TWU.
However, whether formal or informal, my studies continue. I am in the process of getting a website up and running by mid to late January 2021, titled, "The Musings of a Skeptical Believer." Sound familiar? The website will be found @ www.skepticsbelieve.com. There will be short posts/articles to read on a variety of "all things biblical" topics and texts. There will be book reviews and recommendations for other deeper study resources, such as podcasts, online courses, etc. There will be classes offered, hopefully both as audio (with pdfs) and as videos recordings (narrated slide decks). The first one that I'm working on is a weekly series on "The Fourth Gospel." I don't want to simply regurgitate what I have already studied and learned, so I am continuing to study "all things biblical" informally, but with much self-imposed structure that is requiring significant self-discipline.
With my soon-to-be website, I am trying to reach and support as specific niche audience: those who have a faith--or are open to having a faith--but who are experiencing significant cognitive dissonance due to unresolved doubts, concerns, questions about matters related to the nature and will of God, the biblical claims regarding the divine nature of Jesus, the discrepancies found within the biblical texts, inconsistencies with extra-biblical scientific and/or historical information, troubling interpretations expressed by various forms of Christianity, etc.
For those who hold to the Bible as the inerrant word of God and confident about what they have chosen to believe, my website will not be helpful. As is also true for those who have chosen to not believe and are not interested in exploring faith possibilities. I respect that such individuals have chosen their convictions and are comfortable with their faith, or lack thereof. My goal is not to challenge or attack them, but to support and encourage those who have (or desire to have) a faith but are struggling to see how they can believe and yet doubt, have convictions and yet uncertainties.
As I continue to educate myself, here is a list of books I am reading (or completed reading in 2020) and courses of study to which I am listening. My goal is not to impress anyone. Rather, my hope is that this gives those who might be interested in my website a picture of the kinds of topics that I will be addressing in its early days and/or plan to deal with if reader response justifies. The main conviction behind all that I am doing is simply this: "Any faith that is not questioned is a faith that is not worth having."
Books which I am currently reading or have recently read:
- Religious Refugees by Mark Karris
- The Apocryphal Gospels: A Very Short Introduction by Paul Foster
- The Gospel of John by F. F. Bruce
- How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture Then and Now by James L. Kugel
- Mind the Gap by Matthias Henze
- Love Matters More by Jared Byas
- The Bible With and Without Jesus by Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Brettler
- Genesis 1–11 by Edwin M. Good
- Genesis for Normal People by Peter Enns & Jared Byas
- Origins by Douglas Jacoby & Paul Copan
- Republican Jesus by Tony Keddie
- The Meaning of the Bible by Douglas Knight & Amy-Jill Levine
- The Hebrew Bible: a Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter
- The Canonical Gospels attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke & John
- Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi by Amy-Jill Levine
- How the Bible Actually Works by Peter Enns
- The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Very Short Introduction by Timothy Lin
- The Uncontrolling Love of God by Thomas Jay Oord
- God Can’t by Thomas Jay Oord
- When Christians Were Jews: The First Generation by Paula Fredriksen
- When God Spoke Greek: The Septuagint and the Making of the Christian Bible by Timothy Michael Law
- The Bible Now by Richard Elliott Friedman & Shawna Dolansky
- Ecclesiastes by Peter Enns
- Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives by Phyllis Trible
- Sex Difference in Christian Theology: Male, Female and Intersex in the Image of God by Megan K DeFranza
- A High View of Scripture by Craig Allert
- Anatomy of the Fourth Gospel by R. Alan Culpepper
- Who Wrote the Bible by Richard Elliott Friedman
- Wrestling with God & Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition by Rabbi Steven Greenberg
- Neither Complementarian nor Egalitarian: A Kingdom Corrective to the Evangelical Gender Debate by Michelle Lee Barnewall
- Ancient Mesopotamia: Like in the Cradle of Civilization––Professor Amanda H. Podany
- The Old Testament––Professor Amy-Jill Levine
- The New Testament––Professor Bart D.Ehrman
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