ENGL 185 - The Bible as Literature

Credits: 5
Students study the Bible as the main literary text. Students also study the history and cultures of biblical and neighboring peoples. Students understand and apply a variety of literary approaches and concepts such as archetypal, traditional, feminist, symbolic/ figurative, and paradigmatic. Readings focus on the Hebrew Bible with a few samples from the New Testament.

Enrollment Requirement: Eligible for ENGL 99 or instructor consent.

Satisfies Requirement: Humanities/Fine Arts/English
Course Fee: $2.00

Course Outcomes:
Students who successfully complete this class will be able to:

Apply literary approaches to selected Biblical texts.
Identify key texts from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament.
Identify important historical, geographic, and cultural background information that contributes to a literary reading of Biblical texts.
Discuss the nature and current state of literary Biblical scholarship.
Discuss the aesthetic elements in Biblical writings.
Write responses to literature.

Program Outcomes
Demonstrate college-level reading skills by summarizing, analyzing, interpreting, synthesizing, and evaluating college texts; and develop an awareness of the approaches writers use for different audiences, genres, and rhetorical situations.

College-wide Outcomes

Critical Thinking - Critical thinking finds expression in all disciplines and everyday life. It is characterized by an ability to reflect upon thinking patterns, including the role of emotions on thoughts, and to rigorously assess the quality of thought through its work products. Critical thinkers routinely evaluate thinking processes and alter them, as necessary, to facilitate an improvement in their thinking and potentially foster certain dispositions or intellectual traits over time.