Biblical Stories & Philosophy

Today's Chronicle of Higher Education [password required] provides a link to CrossCurrent article, "Teaching our Children Well: Pedagogy, Religion, and the Future of Philosophy," by Claire Elise Katz.

While the whole article discusses the relationship of religion to philosophy, the second part posits the use of biblical narrative as a means to learn about philosophy.

Here is an excerpt:

If we take seriously my concern that philosophy aims at teaching us to know ourselves while also teaching us to read a text critically, then might we not consider bringing religious texts into the classroom—and here I emphasize the Hebrew Bible. The narratives of the Hebrew Bible lend themselves to engaging with students in a manner that addresses all the concerns I raised previously. First, it allows students to see a “familiar” text in a different light. Let me give an example using the story of Cain and Abel—a familiar story to be sure.

So that's what we were doing in Sunday School!