The past year, 3rd grade, things changed notably: before then the language studies were foundational, but last year he could genuinely read simple stories in Hebrew.

Of course, your questions were about Bible studies, not Hebrew language. It turns out I can’t separate them from each other. I feel like the ability to read the Bible itself, in Hebrew, was a key part of my learning the distinction between the document itself and the reverberations it has on society. Probably the Hebrew-ness of it isn’t as important as I make it out to be; surely someone who read a translation could do the same.

For D., it’s early days still: this sort of Hebrew school education is inevitable aimed towards his Bar Mitzvah. What happens after that? I have to admit I don’t know — don’t know what either of us will want, to tell the truth.

Then I took a Bible-as-literature course in college, and not only made me read the text, it gave me ways to think about it in context. I tend to read the Old Testament as the history of a culture, and the Gospels as philosophy. Jesus says a lot of intersting and thought-provoking things, and overall I think he has a lot of good advice on how to live in this world. It probably says something that this almost never comes across in my interactions with actual Christians.

I’m usually happy to discuss religion/philosophy all day long, in case you’re interested.

Oh, I would never begin to claim that the Bible doesn’t heavily influence our society. Of course that influence is huge, even on people like me who’ve never read the whole thing (or even most of it). But that influence — the metaphors, the language, the stories that most of us are familiar with — isn’t the same thing as *belief*. That’s the distinction I was making. I celebrate Passover because it’s a tradition of my family and my friends, but that doesn’t mean I actually believe God sent a bunch of plagues to the Egyptians, or that any other part of the Bible is the literal word of God.

I thought it was interesting to read about someone’s journey back to the original source of these influences, as he tried to tease out which pieces of what anyone credits/blames the Bible for are actually part of the text.

So, since you mention appreciating your Biblical education, now I’m curious — how much Biblical knowledge are you raising your kids with?

As you say, Sam, there’s something of a distance between either of those Bibles and the religion-is-tradition point of view. But maybe the break is a little less absolute than you make it out to be.

The stories in the Bible comprise a (some would say the) canon — for some time and place, a body of literature that you could assume were background knowledge common to everyone you met. When you mentioned Buffy and BSG and Dr Who references above, you were talking about the same thing on a small social scale, but of course we have society-wide versions also: write something in this font, and you’re automatically invoking Superman imagery in the mind of your reader. (Oof, I’m going to look like a fool if WordPress doesn’t embed images :-) The words and grammar of the Bible was the Superman font of its time, and I’ll send you a dove carrying an olive branch if you don’t believe some of it still is.

I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to claim that a society is in some ways influenced by the family of stories it uses for its canon. And the Bible is only a small part of that, of course — along with Greek/Roman mythology, Shakespeare, and so on… oh, including that other book called “The New Testament”, about which I know far less than I feel I ought.

So the answer is, I do see influences from the Bible all around. I sometimes feel funny doing so — not the way I feel funny eating a bacon-cheeseburger, because Lord knows I’ve never batted an eyelash over that. But I feel like I’m more conscious of some of these currents than I would be without this strange religious background I ended up with, and in the end I’m glad of it.

Maybe I’m not the best person to discuss religion with. RIght now, my faith in humanity is at a nadir.

Haven’t read the whole thing, but I have read large chunks of it, old and new testaments alike. It’s what happens when you’re raised Southern Baptist — and when you go to church every Sunday and most Wednesday evenings for your entire childhood and adolescence. Also, during the period when I considered myself a devout Christian (from ages 10-16) I also read the Bible every day. It’s called a “devotional”.

I’ve gotten over my anger and cynicism enough to be able to attend church with my grandparents when I visit them without completely losing my mind. I even fix my hair without complaining. Turns out church services are really great for mentally organizing my to-do list. Very, very occasionally I feel an urge to address the Universe using the God-language I was taught. Otherwise I do credit my Christian upbringing with making me the fairly spiritual person that I am. I’m pretty content being a new-age-goddam-pagan-hippie, though, and don’t think I’ll go back to being all Jesus-happy anytime soon.

Anyway, I’ve got lots of stories. We should talk sometime. :)