Seven Surprises of the Bible's Creation Story
What you'll learn
- At the end of my course, students will be able to find their way back to the Garden of Eden and eat from the Tree of Life. Okay, that's hyperbole, but it's closer to the truth than anything else I could think of in describing this course.
- The "secrets" referred to in the title of this course are hiding in plain sight. After taking the course you will never read the first three chapters of Genesis in the same way.
- Stories about origins are also stories that attempt to tell us something about where we are going. This course provides insights into how the Bible understands who we are and where we are going.
- Regardless of religious belief or perspective, these insights into human life are both profound and exciting.
Requirements
- Students should bring their critical faculties along with an open mind and an open heart. No prior background is necessary.
- No particular beliefs are necessary for a student to gain from this course. Students of any and all beliefs are welcome. Students who are new to the Bible and students who know the Bible well will gain equally from this course.
Description
This course provides a deep-dive into elements of the Garden of Eden story, a story that has had a profound influence on our culture. The foundational stories we tell remain the same; how we understand those stories changes over the course of our lives. Learning a new way to understand this foundational story provides new possibilities for our future.
Gain insights into who you are and into the unfolding of human life.
· At the end of this course, students will be able to find their way back to the Garden of Eden and eat from the Tree of Life. Okay, that's hyperbole, but it's closer to the truth than anything else I could think of in describing this course.
· Stories about origins are also stories that attempt to tell us something about where we are going. This course provides insights into how the Bible understands who we are and where we are going.
· Regardless of your religious beliefs or perspective, these insights into human life are both profound and exciting.
Learn seven secrets that are embedded within the first three chapters of the Bible.
Anyone interested in gaining new insights into the foundations of our culture should take this course. ###b/b###Atheists and religious fundamentalists alike will be enriched by this course without having their core commitments challenged.
If you are NOT open to new Biblical interpretations you should not take this course.
If you have been influenced or intrigued by both Western and Eastern religious thought, this course might help provide a bridge between those two worlds. And if you have a clear preference for either Eastern or Western thought, you will also enjoy what this course offers.
I guarantee that there will be something new for every student, no matter how familiar you are with this material. If every perspective and insight offered in this course is familiar to you, I encourage you to request a course refund.
Contents and Overview
This course consists of X NUMBER lectures. The seven secrets are revealed one at a time through a close examination of the Biblical text.
The course is designed to speak to the novice and the expert, to Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists, agnostics, whomever.
The texts under examination will be provided on screen. No additional materials are necessary.
At the end of the course your understanding of, and appreciation for, the Bible’s creation story will be transformed.
Who this course is for:
- Anyone interested in re-reading the Biblical creation story and gaining new insights into the foundations of our culture should take this course. This course is not seeking to change anyone's beliefs or core commitments. Atheists and religious fundamentalists alike will be enriched by this course without having their core commitments challenged.
- If you are NOT open to new Biblical interpretations you should not take this course.
- If you have been influenced or intrigued by both Western and Eastern religious thought, this course might help provide a bridge between those two worlds.
- And if you have a clear preference for either Eastern or Western thought, you will also enjoy what this course offers.
Instructor
- 4.8 Instructor Rating
- 20 Reviews
- 70 Students
- 1 Course
Named one of the 50 most-influential American rabbis by Newsweek magazine (The Daily Beast) for six consecutive years, Dan Ehrenkrantz was the fifth president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC). He is currently the President of Dan Ehrenkrantz Consulting.
Ehrenkrantz came to RRC after 14 years as rabbi of Bnai Keshet, a Reconstructionist congregation in Montlair, NJ. There he received national attention in The Washington Post for his work helping to promote interfaith understanding as a member of the Montclair Clergy Association. Ehrenkrantz led Bnai Keshet’s successful capital campaign and oversaw the purchase of the congregation’s first building—a project that entailed preserving a historic mansion and constructing a new facility. During the time he served as its spiritual leader, the congregation doubled in size.
As RRC’s Aaron and Marjorie Ziegelman Presidential Professor, Ehrenkrantz has taught courses on Jewish and Hebrew literature, darshanut (text interpretation), the Jewish holiday cycle, and the Jewish lifecycle. He has written rabbinic commentary for Dream of Zion: American Jews Reflect on Why Israel Matters to Them (Jewish Lights, 2007), the Men’s Torah Commentary (Jewish Lights), The Guide to Jewish Practice (RRC Press) and the Kol Haneshama prayer book series (Reconstructionist Press). His writings have also appeared in Forbes.com, The Nonprofit Quarterly, The Jerusalem Report, New York’s Jewish Week, the Charlotte Observer, the Hartford Courant, and Contact and Child magazines.
Ehrenkrantz has been a guest on the award-winning PBS television series Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, on the public radio program Weekend America, and on the Montel Across America Show with Montel Williams on AirAmerica Media.