Resilient readings of children in the Bible; my teaching this term; and accounting for your emotions when studying

Welcome to my newsletter, ‘Bible, Mission, and More’, where I share what’s on my mind as I teach, research, and write on the Bible and mission, children-at-risk in the Bible and contemporary society, Psalms and Wisdom Literature, and a range of other topics. I teach at All Nations Christian College in the UK, though views are my own. You may also like to check out my Bible and Mission website.

Each Tuesday I’ll share something I’ve read, something I’ve written or recorded, something on learning and teaching, and a quote to reflect on.

Something read – Resilient readings of children in the Bible

As I continue to work on the way children feature in biblical texts I came across an excellent recent chapter by Paba Nidhani De Andrado, ‘A Resilient Reading of the Young Miriam in Exodus 2’ in Violence Against Women and Children in the Hebrew Bible: Between Trauma and Resilience, eds. Kristine Garroway, Paul Kim and John Martens (T&T Clark: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024).

De Andrado does a brilliant job explaining the terrifying context of Egyptian oppression of the Hebrews at the start of Exodus, including Pharaoh’s decree of death of male babies. She notes ways this policy would have made Hebrew girls vulnerable as well.

Drawing on resilience research De Andrado’s looks to identify three sets of factors in Miriam’s life (individual, familial, and social) and explore how these features in her words and actions. I found this a really useful way of highlighting Miriam’s bravery and wisdom as she worked to ensure the survival of her baby brother Moses, and resist Pharaoh’s rule of death. I also appreciated how the chapter pointed to the outcomes of Miriam’s resilience, evidenced in her (admittedly relatively few, though significant) mentions later on in Israel’s story.

The chapter also has a very useful bibliography, and I am definitely going to explore how I can bring this idea of resilience into my future work.

The book itself is horrendously expensive at RRP £85 for the hardback (equivalent to just over $100). However it is included already on Perlego. Moreover, De Andrado has also put a version of her chapter on her Academia page.

Something written – What am I teaching this term?

To give you more of a window into what I am getting up to at All Nations I thought it would be worth letting you know what I’ll be teaching this term. It’s quite a full term teaching-wise with a mixture of established and new classes.

I will continue to co-teach (with Dr Dave Baker) the first year Old Testament and Mission module for students on the BA in Biblical and Intercultural Studies programme. We’ve reached the half-way point and are turning to the poetic and prophetic books of the OT. I will focus on Psalms and Wisdom texts and Dave will concentrate on the prophetic texts. I will also be doing a number of topical sessions like the Old Testament as a product, record, and instrument of mission, and preparing OT Bible Studies.

I will also be continuing to work with Dr Kate Wiseman on Learning Foundations; our version of ‘study skills’ which includes a developing suite of online resources we’ve called the Learning Foundations Toolkit. We use a ‘flipped’ approach that complements the asynchronous material in the toolkit with some live sessions. These sessions have been a real highlight for me this year as we’ve seen the students growing together, sharing about their struggles and their good practices as learners, and encouraging each another.

For the third years on the BA programme (the final year in the UK system) I’m taking on a (to me) new module on Old Testament Theology. I’m particularly looking forward to this as I’ve wanted to teach something like it for a while.

For postgrads I’ll be joining Dr VJ Samkutty’s class on Biblical Foundations for Mission, a compulsory module for all of our MA/Mth programmes. I’ll be leading some sessions on Old Testament material, which includes a chance to share about my PhD research and subsequent book on missional hermeneutics and the book of Job. I’ll also be facilitating and marking the student presentations throughout the module.

Alongside Dr Hannah Green I’ll be working with the Master’s students as they develop and begin work on their research projects/dissertations. This is always a fascinating and rewarding process as students make those sometimes complex moves from big idea to workable project.

Finally, I will be contributing to our 10-week En Route programme with sessions on mission and the big story of the Bible, and learning styles.

Learning and teaching – the emotional side to studying

Like many theological education institutions, at All Nations we use an ethos of holistic education. Whether using phrases like, ‘head, heart, hands’; ‘knowing, being, doing,’; ‘knowledge, character, skills’ or the like, the point is that we understand education to be formative of our whole selves, and not just theoretical knowledge.

One really nice practice I came across recently was using the ‘feelings wheel’ to help students gauge their emotional response to something they had just read or listened to. In that particular instance a lecturer in historical theology had just read aloud some passages from an early Christian writer which contained some problematic ideas about violence and God’s justice in a particular historical setting.

Attribution: Sydtomcat, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Before discussing the content of the writing she showed an image of the ‘feelings wheel’, which depicts core, second level and third level emotions, and asked the class to take a moment to find two emotions they were experiencing as they listened to the texts.

What struck me was how useful a concrete image like this could be in helping students to acknowledge their inner response to the material. If anything I think this ‘emotional check’ then led to a more fruitful discussion of the ideas. My guess is that this simple practice meant students could approach the discussion in a more settled way.

I’m going to see how I can integrate this practice into some of my classes going forward. If you are a lecturer why don’t you try it out? If you are a student, you can always use this as a practice on your own, even if it isn’t done from the front of the class.

Quote – Susie Dent on ‘Respair’

‘Most of us know the word ‘despair’, a word that describes deep unhappiness and a loss of hope, but did you know that there once was a word to describe the opposite? ‘Respair’. From the 16^th century, expresses something quite joyful: fresh hope and a recovery from despair. It is a word and a feeling to hang on to when things seem a little sad. In difficult times, it is good to remember that the sadness will pass, and respair will eventually find you.’

From Susie Dent, Roots of Happiness: 100 Words for Joy and Hope (London: Puffin, 2023), p. 32.

Thanks for joining the journey and see you next week,

Tim