An Interview with Christopher Stanley

Fortress Press: Your new textbook--The Hebrew Bible: A Comparative Approach--is aimed at college students in a religious-studies curriculum such as is offered in many state universities. In what ways do you seek in this book to reach students that might be underserved by other textbooks?

Chris Stanley: Most of the introductory textbooks currently on the market were written for students who have at least a general familiarity with the content and stories of the Bible. Their primary concern is to introduce students to the methods and findings of contemporary biblical scholarship. In reality, fewer and fewer students possess the degree of biblical literacy that these textbooks presuppose, and many of them are taking a course on the Hebrew Bible in order to fulfill a general education requirement, not to pursue a major in religious studies or theology. At the same time, more and more students are interested in learning about other religions.

To address the interests of this changing audience, The Hebrew Bible: A Comparative Approach employs an analytical framework derived from the comparative study of religion. Students who use this book learn not only about the major trends in contemporary biblical scholarship but also about the varieties of religious expression in ancient Palestine, using Ninian Smart’s model of the six dimensions of religion (mythical, doctrinal, experiential, ritual, social, and ethical) as a guide. This does not mean, however, that the book is overly complicated. In fact, the book was consciously designed for students who have no prior experience with the Hebrew Bible or the academic study of religion. Nothing is taken for granted; every character, term, and concept is explained as though students are encountering them for the first time. The book is written in simple, clear, direct prose and includes hundreds of color photos to illustrate key points. Every chapter includes biblical readings and exercises that help students relate what they are learning to the biblical text. The result is a text that students can actually understand, freeing instructors to use class time to build on the readings rather than explaining them.

FP: Most college classrooms today--whether at church-related colleges or private or state universities--offer a real mix of student backgrounds and expectations. How would you characterize the students for whom you have written The Hebrew Bible, and what are the distinct challenges they pose for the classroom teacher?

CS: In the past, the greatest challenge for college and university instructors was to help students who were familiar with the basic story line and major concepts of the Bible to adopt a more analytical and critical approach to a text that they regarded as sacred. Today’s classrooms, by contrast, are far more diverse, including many students who know little or nothing about the contents of the Bible, whether because they were raised in non-religious homes or because they follow other religions. Introducing such a mixed group of students to critical biblical scholarship is a daunting enterprise, since it is hard to find a common foundation upon which one can build. Textbooks that presuppose a knowledge base that is not present will invariably leave many students struggling to succeed in their studies.

Another challenge for contemporary instructors is the low level of reading, writing, and critical thinking skills that many students bring to their classes. To some degree this has always been a problem in college and university classrooms, but evidence suggests that the problem has grown worse in recent years, affecting even the top universities in the country. Yet too many textbooks continue to follow models that were developed for students of earlier generations, leaving many students unable to grasp what they are trying to say.

The Hebrew Bible: A Comparative Approach seeks to address both of these issues at once by (a) assuming no prior knowledge of the Bible and (b) using clear and direct language that ordinary students can understand. Students who have used the book agree that it is much easier to follow than their textbooks in other classes, while students with no prior religious background perform as well in courses based on this book as students who have grown up around the Bible.

FP: The Hebrew Bible takes a religious-studies approach both to the ways these writings are used in contemporary religious communities and to what we might call the “varieties of religious experience” in ancient Israel. How would you describe the value of such an approach as compared to a more canonical or theological approach?

CS: Canonical approaches to the Hebrew Bible focus primarily on the history and ideas of the texts that were eventually incorporated into the Jewish and/or Christian canon. Such approaches are clearly helpful for understanding how the documents that make up the Hebrew Bible have been received and employed by Jewish and Christian religious communities. The chief problem with canonical approaches is that they tend to take the canonical texts as a given while neglecting the diverse and complicated religious environment in which these texts arose. As a result, students learn to read the biblical texts in a religio-historical vacuum, ignoring the fact that the biblical authors and editors represented a minority viewpoint until the Exile or later.

A similar problem afflicts many theological approaches to the Hebrew Bible. While some theological interpreters are more historically sensitive than others, they share a concern to make the Hebrew Bible speak to the questions and concerns of contemporary believers who occupy a very different social and intellectual world than the people who produced the Hebrew Bible. As a result, they tend to overlook those aspects of ancient Palestinian religion that seem strange or irrelevant to modern Western readers, such as the worship of many gods, the practice of animal sacrifice, or the practices that the biblical authors deride as sorcery, divination, and necromancy. This in turn can lead to a narrow and distorted view of the religious beliefs and practices of the people of ancient Palestine.

The Hebrew Bible: A Comparative Approach, by contrast, seeks to introduce students to the breadth and depth of religious life in ancient Palestine, including but not limited to the people who wrote, edited, and canonized the texts that we call the Hebrew Bible. The use of a cross-cultural, comparative model of religion ensures that the religious beliefs and practices of the people of ancient Palestine are analyzed on their own terms rather than being conformed to modern Western views.

FP: Polls and anecdotal “common wisdom” among teachers suggest that today’s college students are less familiar with the Hebrew Bible than their predecessors. Nevertheless, in many classrooms the instructor will face students who know a lot about the Bible because of their involvement in their own faith communities. How do you as a teacher--and as a writer--balance the need to promote learning among some students and “un-learning” among others?

CS: One of the benefits of using a cross-cultural, comparative model of religion to study the Hebrew Bible is that it is new to virtually everyone—students who know more about the Bible have as much to learn as those who are encountering it for the first time. This helps to mitigate any initial advantage that certain students might have as a result of their prior experience with the Bible while also helping them to see that there is much to be learned in the course—that is, that it won’t simply be a repetition of what they learned in church or synagogue. At the same time, it reassures those with little or no knowledge of the Bible, including people from other faiths, that the course is not going to favor a particular religious perspective to the detriment of others.

Another benefit of using a comparative approach is that it sounds more neutral and interesting to students than a course that is framed around the questions and insights of modern critical biblical scholarship. Students who might otherwise be defensive when encountering critical study of the Bible are more receptive when it occurs as part of a broader analysis of the religion(s) of ancient Palestine. The viewpoints presented in The Hebrew Bible: A Comparative Approach are no less critical than in more traditional textbooks, but somehow the comparative model helps students to see more clearly that scholars are not simply trying to attack the Bible or tear down their faith. On the other end of the spectrum, students who have little inherent interest in the Bible, such as those taking a required course on the subject, also tend to become more engaged when they see that the Bible is being compared with the sacred texts of other religions. Not only is this a new way of looking at an old subject, but it also ties in with the curiosity that many students today feel about different religions.