"Reading the Bible with Fresh Eyes After Religious Trauma"

Rev. Dr. Andrew Packman

Given the immense harm caused by those wielding the Bible as a weapon, many now find it difficult to read Scripture as part of their spiritual practice. Though understandable, this response results in the further harm of severing us from one of the most powerful well-springs of Christian faith and life. This two-part series attempts to find a way back into reading the Bible, albeit with fresh eyes. The first session attempts to understand the deeper historical and theological reasons that led to the current crisis: how did the Bible come to seem so dangerous that it became essentially optional in many progressive Christian circles? The second session test drives a new embodied, literary approach to reading the Bible as one possible way to restore the spiritual vitality of Scripture in the wake of religious trauma.

Join us this Wednesday, September 24 6:30 pm in the Fireside Room to hear more the Rev. Dr. Andrew Packman.

Rev. Dr. Andrew Packman serves as Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics and Formation at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. His research explores the role of emotion in moral and religious life. His first book, currently under review with Oxford University Press, is entitled The Atmospherics of Race: A Theological Hermeneutics of Intransigent Evil. It draws constructively on critical race theory and the works of Friedrich Schleiermacher to propose a new way to think theologically about race in American life. Packman is also an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). While completing his PhD at the University of Chicago Divinity School, Packman joined with two colleagues to plant a dinner church in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood called Root and Branch. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife, Sarah, and their two sons, Benjamin and Owen.

Journey of Faith

ADULT FAITH FORMATION
Wednesdays

5:45 - 6:15 PM | GATHERED Dinner
($10, pay ahead at www.bit.ly/wedsnight900)
6:15–6:30 pm GROUNDED Centering Time
6:30–7:25 pm GROWING Journey of Faith
Choir: 7:30 pm (all are welcome!)

Each evening is centered around Stories of Faith from our own members, Stories of Scripture retold by scholars, Stories of Our Time to engage the intersection of faith and culture, and Stories Our Bodies Tell to help us understand our bodies as sacred space.