DESCRIPTION: This course offers an inductive introduction to the Old Testament through the lens of its latest canonical portion, the Writings. Close attention will be given to the Psalms, the Wisdom literature (Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes), the Festival books (Ruth, Song of Songs, Lamentations, and Esther), the apocalyptic book of Daniel, and the historical books of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. From these varied works, examples of literary, historical, and theological connections will be traced to the rest of the canon, "the Law and the Prophets."

SIGNIFICANCE FOR LIFE AND MINISTRY: This course will lift up classic themes of the Old Testament as they are attested in the Writings and illustrated from the rest of the Old Testament: creation, the elective traditions of Moses and David, ordering of the community life in worship and ethical exhortation; land, land-loss, and diaspora; crises of faith, both corporate and individual; and hope expressed in endurance and resistance.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: Students who successfully complete this course will have demonstrated: (1) a grasp of the range of Israel's worship traditions, drawing from the Psalms and from other canonical witnesses to the ordering and criticism of the cult; (2) an understanding of the ethos of Israel, as reflected in its value-affirming wisdom and its legal traditions; (3) an overview of Israel's history and of the diverse traditions that remember it, comparing Chronicles and the Former Prophets; (4) an understanding of apocalyptic and its relationship to competing understandings of the future hope; (5) a grasp of various models for reconstructing the processes by which the Old Testament developed into its canonical form; (6) an ability to reflect upon and evaluate theological issues raised by the Old Testament and to discern their implications for Christian faith and practice; (7) an awareness of how we may learn from historically and culturally diverse vantage points better to read, use, and obey this portion of Scripture.

COURSE FORMAT: The course will meet once each week for a three-hour session. Class sessions will be devoted to a combination of lecture presentations and structured class discussions. Class sections in Pasadena and in Sacramento will be participating simultaneously via Polycom. It will be important for the class process that students be prepared to work on assigned readings and exercises each week.

REQUIRED READING:

Boadt, Lawrence. Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction. New York: Paulist Press, 1984. ISBN 978-0809126316; $19.95.

Longman, Tremper, III, and Peter Enns, eds. Dictionary of the Old Testament: Wisdom, Poetry & Writings. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0830817832; $60.00.

Articles posted on course Moodle page (including relevant ANE texts, articles reflecting different interpretive perspectives).

Billman, Kathleen, and Daniel Migliore. Rachel's Cry: Prayer of Lament and Rebirth of Hope. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2007. ISBN 978-1556356292; $21.00.

Gutiérrez, Gustavo. On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent. Maryknoll: Orbis, 1987. ISBN 978-0883445525; $24.00.

Sakenfeld, Katharine Doob. Just Wives? Stories of Power and Survival in the Old Testament and Today. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2003. ISBN 978-0664226602; $19.95.