Who is Christine Roy Yoder?

Christine Roy Yoder is the guest speaker of Episode 13 of the Covenant Bible Study on Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Here are some quick facts about her:

1) She is the professor of Old Testament Language, Literature and Exegesis, as well at the interim Dean of Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs, at Columbia Theological Seminary.

2) She received her BA from Swarthmore College, an MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary and a PhD in Old Testament from Princeton Theological Seminary.

3) She has written several books on the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, including Wisdom as a Woman of Substance: A Socioeconomic Reading of Proverbs 1-9 and 31:1-31 and The Senses in Israelite Wisdom Literature.

4) She is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian church.

5)  She was named by the Association of Theological Schools and The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc. as a Henry Luce III Fellow in Theology for her book project tentatively titled Contours of Desire in Israelite Wisdom Literature.

Christians and Civil Disobedience

This past week, we discussed leadership and government and the role of Christians in resisting a corrupt government, especially in light of Romans 13 which says,

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.

1 Peter 2 also says,

Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

Does this mean that Christians ought to acquiesce to a corrupt government? At first glance, it seems so. However, the Scriptures also offer up a number of examples of what might certainly be called "civil disobedience." There were the Hebrew midwives in Exodus 1:

"...But the midwives feared God and did not do as the King of Egypt commanded them. ... So, God dealt well with the midwives. ...And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families."

In Joshua 2, Rahab defies the King of Jericho and refuses to give up the Israelite spies. In 1 Kings 18, Obadiah hides the prophets from Jezebel, a clear defiance of the queen. And there were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3:

Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king's command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God.

Daniel himself defied the king's command in Daniel 6. And many hundreds of years later, in Acts 5, we read:

But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men."

The case for civil disobedience seems clear when the authorities are directly defying God or endangering the people of God. What does this mean for us today? What kind of resistance is permissible? Are there times to go beyond a refusal to obey the orders of the government? Are there times for active resistance?

For an example of this, many turn to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a well-known and revered Christian theologian, who is thought to have been part of a conspiracy to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Some quick research, however, reveals that Bonhoeffer was somewhat removed from the assassination plan, though he must certainly known of it. It is unclear whether or not he approved and exactly how involved he was. His own words seem unclear on whether he would consider such an action right before God. From his book, Ethics:

"Before other men he is justified by dire necessity; before himself he is acquitted by his conscience, but before God he hopes only for grace.”

Are there other examples we might turn to? Other passages of scripture? Other examples among the saints and theologians of the past? I look forward to hearing more responses, thoughts and ideas on this over the coming weeks as we continue to explore Living the Covenant. 

Who is Audrey L. S. West?

Audrey L. S. West is the guest speaker of Episode 12 of the Covenant Bible Study on 1&2 Thessalonians, 1&2 Timothy and Titus. Here are some quick facts about her:

1) She is an adjunct professor of New testament at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.

2) She received a master of divinity and master of sacred theology from Yale Divinity School and a doctor of philosophy degree in New Testament from Duke University. Her minor fields of study included ethics and feminist philosophy.

3) Prior to her theological studies, West was national executive director for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Volunteers for Youth, where she administered a program for at-risk junior high school youth. She has also worked as a consultant with non-profit organizations in the areas of group dynamics, conflict resolution, fundraising, and decision-making.

4) She has written a 9-session Bible Study series called "Gathered by God," which was published in Gather, the ELCA women's magazine.

5) Her current research interests include ancient Greco-Roman conventions of friendship and the intersection between the New Testament and contemporary ethics.

Storytelling and Compassion

In this week's study we hear how the Prophet Nathan told a story to King David in order to call the King out on his sinful behavior. Nathan's story had a much more powerful effect than confronting King David about his behavior. It made David step outside himself and see the situation from another point of view.

Stories are incredibly powerful tools. According to education and neuroscience studies, stories facilitate leaning and memory, and they help people organize their world. Check out this article featuring Michael Gazzaniga: Your Storytelling Brain.

Gazzaniga suspects that narrative coherence helps us to navigate the world – to know where we're coming from and where we're headed. It tells us where to place our trust and why. One reason we may love fiction, he says, is that it enables us to find our bearings in possible future realities, or to make better sense of our own past experiences.

Not only does storytelling help us to navigate the world, hearing the stories of others build empathy and compassion in us. Researchers at Staffordshire University in England have been studying the Superpower of Storytelling.

Our findings suggest that arts and culture can convey stories that have a superpower to connect people by striking a chord, enabling us to identify with individuals and challenge stereotypical ideas of the ‘other’ – a truly remarkable thing in a world that sometimes seems overwhelmed by social and racial tensions.

In fact, stories are so effective that they're used in marketing all the time, and businesses are capitalizing on the power of storytelling. Leadership Story Lab teaches business owners, managers, and entrepreneurs how to tell effective stories to run successful businesses and market their products:

Using only classical storytelling elements, we blend our creative coaching, training, and consulting with cutting edge social science insights. The results? You are able to translate your data, relate your ideas, and persuade your audience to act.

We call it: storytelling with business impact.

What this tells us is that stories are possibly the most effective tools at our disposal for teaching and learning, for correcting, for changing attitudes/behaviors, and for building compassion. Have you ever heard of Humans of New York? It began as a photography project and morphed into a storytelling project...and, as a storytelling project, it has become wildly popular all over social media. And then there's Upworthy, whose byline is: Because we're all part of the same story. From their website:

We believe that stories about important issues can and should be great stories — stories for everyone, stories that connect us and sometimes even change the world.

"...even change the world." Nathan's story changed David's world. When we stop to listen to the stories of others, those stories change us. I look forward to hearing about the stories that have shaped your life, the stories you tell again and again.

Who is Roy L. Heller?

Roy L. Heller is the guest speaker for Episode 11 of the Covenant Bible Study on the books of 2nd Samuel and 1st & 2nd Kings. Here are a few quick facts about him:

1) He received  a B.S. from Houston Baptist University, a Master of Arts and a Master of Philosophy from Yale University Graduate School,  an M.Div. and a  a Master of Sacred Theology from Yale University Divinity School, and a PhD in Hebrew Bible and Old Testament from Yale University.

2) He is an Associate Professor of Old Testament at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX.

3) He is the author of 3 books: Conversations with Scripture: The Books of Judges (2011), Power, Politics, and Prophecy: The Character of Samuel and the Deuteronomistic Evaluation of Prophecy (2006), and Narrative Structure Discourse Constellations: An Analysis of Clause Function in Biblical Hebrew Prose (2004).

4) He has special interests in Hebrew grammar and syntax, and using the Bible in ethics.

5) He is a fifth generation Texan. He, his wife Amy, and their two children, Annie and Noah, have been living in Dallas since 1999.