Four New ATSS PRESENTS Programs Available
2 November 2022 |
The following four ATSS presentations are now available for your viewing.
Heidi Campbell | 15 October 2022
Who do you think Mary Magdalene was? A woman with a scandalous past? The sister of Lazarus and Martha? First witness to the resurrection? A rich heiress? An evangelist and miracle worker? Heidi Olson Campbell explores how the Reformation shifted the image of who Mary Magdalene was. Protestant reformers claimed great adherence to the biblical scriptures, but in the case of a famous biblical woman, did they actually return to the Bible evidence of who the Magdalene was? Or did they choose to leave elements of late medieval lore attached to her image? The discussion will explore how we present biblical women in sermons. Are theology and the Bible driving the presentation of gender roles? Or are current sociopolitical needs and ideas shaping that depiction of women? Why is it important how women are portrayed in sermons?
Teacher: Heidi Olson Campbell is a PhD Candidate in history at Baylor University. Her dissertation is on the sociopolitical factors impacting the representation of women in early modern English sermons. She currently is an adjunct professor at Baylor University and Washington Adventist University and is a subeditor on the Encyclopedia of Seventh–day Adventists.
Reinder Bruinsma | 5 October 2022
According to the postmodern philosophers the ‘grand stories’ of the past are no longer valid. Could it, however, be that the ‘great controversy’ theme offers, in fact, a ‘grand story’ that can still appeal to people today? Can we read the apocalyptic books of the Bible in such a way that a ‘grand story’ emerges which is meaningful and convincing for postmodern readers?
Teacher: Reinder Bruinsma lives in the Netherlands with his wife, Aafje. He has served the Adventist Church in various assignments in publishing, education, and church administration on three continents. He still maintains a busy schedule of preaching, teaching, and writing. His latest book is I Have a Future: Christ’s Resurrection and Mine.
Laurence Turner | 1 October 2022
Brent A. Strawn, in his book The Old Testament Is Dying draws an analogy between the contemporary Christian church’s competence in reading the Old Testament and the ability to speak a language fluently. Acknowledging the limitations of any analogy, he argues that the church is losing its ability to understand the Old Testament in much the same way that second- and third-generation immigrants increasingly lose their ability to understand and speak the language of their parents and grandparents. The church, he argues, has lost “fluency” in the Old Testament and it now speaks about it in a “pidgin”.
In this Adventist Today Sabbath Seminar, we will not attempt a general apology for the Old Testament to show its current relevance. Rather we will try to “get into” the heads and minds of the Old Testament writers. How did their culture, language, and ways of thinking influence what they wrote? And how do the answers to those questions enable us as twenty-first century readers to understand their “language”, and to read what they wrote with increased competence?
Teacher: Laurence Turner is Principal Lecturer Emeritus in Old Testament at Newbold College of Higher Education.
Jim Walters | 21 September 2022
Humans need a purpose for which to live, and religion addresses this existential need more adequately than any other discipline. Religion functions at the affective level, where we really live; its content may sometimes be fuzzy and even wrong, but that’s secondary.
Teacher: James W. Walters is professor emeritus of ethics at Loma Linda University.
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