A two-day workshop at Hope College on Friday and Saturday, April 25 and 26, will focus on reading Genesis 1-11 for insights from the biblical thought-world that can provide guidance through today鈥檚 thorniest issues.
The 鈥淏ible Thinks鈥� workshop is designed for laypeople, ministry leaders and pastors alike, and is being presented by the in partnership with the college鈥檚 Office of the Dean of Arts and Humanities, and Department of Religion. It will feature three connected sessions: on Friday, April 25, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.; and on Saturday, April 26, from 8 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The public is invited, and participants are welcome even if able to attend only one or two of the sessions. Admission is free, although advance registration is required at . Additional information including the workshop鈥檚 location will be provided upon registration.
鈥淭he biblical thought-world can hold its own with the ancient Greek philosophers and the modern scientific enterprise alike, and yet we often don鈥檛 understand how Scripture鈥檚 鈥榯hinking鈥� can guide us through the thorniest issues in our culture,鈥� said the Rev. Dr. Dru Johnson, who is a visiting member of the Hope religion faculty as well the founding director of the Center for Hebraic Thought, and will be facilitating the workshop. 鈥淭his workshop will help participants learn to think alongside the biblical authors by accessing the coherent systems of ideas branching across the Old to New Testaments. These deep structures in Scripture not only critique our culture today but also offer a sophisticated way forward in how we think and act in our communities.鈥�
鈥淭his workshop will be especially helpful for those who struggle with the reasonableness of the biblical texts, or those who do not understand how the biblical tradition has shaped much of Western thought, even while Western culture has not always accurately handled the biblical texts,鈥� he said.
Dru Johnson researches, writes and teaches on the intellectual world within biblical literature. He has published 11 books on topics such as science, gender, ritual, and philosophy and their counterparts in the native thinking within the biblical literature. He is also the Templeton Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, University of Oxford, editor of the Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Biblical Criticism Series, host of The Biblical Mind podcast and co-host of the OnScript podcast. At Wycliffe, he also directs the Abrahamic Theistic-Origins Project.
To inquire about accessibility or if you need accommodations to fully participate in the event, please email accommodations@hope.edu. Updates related to events are posted when available at hope.edu/calendar in the individual listings.