The Bible is the most influential, best-selling, and well-loved book in the world. That’s saying something for having been written well over 2,000 years ago.
It has been translated into every language in every country on earth, but it still cannot manage to find its way into American public schools. Most schools shy away from teaching the Bible for clearly political reasons, wanting to maintain a separation between church and state, or fearing backlash from a non-Christian community.
When schools fail to integrate the most popular piece of literature in the world, they are shortchanging their students.
Here’s why the Bible is so important for dual credit studies in Literature.
The Bible’s far-reaching influence is quite hard to ignore. Whether you are a believer or not, you will without a doubt come across references to the Bible in many college courses and on many exams.
The number of allusions to the Bible in literature is astounding. Shakespeare references the Bible hundreds, if not thousands of times. Authors that include Biblical references or even base whole works on the Bible include Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Milton, Mark Twain, and Leo Tolstoy.
Studying the Bible as a basis for all literature studies gives us new insight into many literary works and allows us to expand upon what is written and read between the lines.
Authors of classical literature were writing from a totally different world-view. Scholars of the day were expected to know the Bible inside-out. It was unthinkable that a Biblical allusion would not be understood by the reader.
As a matter of fact, our generation might just be the first generation to have a lost understanding of the many faceted stories found in the Bible. Myths, legends, romance, suspense, and murder – incredibly fabulous stories lost to a generation who chooses to remain steadfastly secular in the education of its children.
Without a doubt, Biblically literate students have a huge advantage when approaching classic and even modern literature. Simply recognizing biblical references makes students more sophisticated readers.
Knowing the stories of the Bible will allow students to make personal connections when studying literature. It’s these personal connections that keep a reader interested and eager to analyze what they’ve read.
Reading and analyzing the Bible, not just as a basis for your faith, but as the fundamental backbone of western culture and literature should be a primary goal in any school, home school, or dual credit program.
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