Teaching resources for the Bible in Literature classes include James S. Ackerman and Thayer S. Warshaw, The Bible as/in Literature, 2nd ed. (Chicago: Foresman Scott, 1976), and John B. Gabel and Charles B. Wheeler, The Bible as Literature: An Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986).
The Society of Biblical Literature has produced an excellent series called The Bible in American Culture. The six volumes in the series, available from Scholars Press, offer insights into the role of the Bible in popular culture and in American arts and letters, law, politics, rhetoric, education and social reform.
Specific teacher materials include the National Council on Religion and Public Education’s Teaching the Bible in Literature Classes, edited by Nicholas Piediscalzi.
The Eden Seminary, 470 E. Lockwood Ave., St. Louis, MO 63119 also sells back issues of the journal Religion & Public Education, which sometimes features Bible and Literature themes. “Women, Religion, and Education” (Summer 1987) includes several selections on women in the Hebrew scriptures. The Winter 1990 issue contains essays on the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible and its implications for public school teachers.
The NCRPE Distribution Center (recently relocated to California State University at Chico) also has available lesson plans developed by teachers from Indiana University and Wright State University. The best example of an excellent curriculum supplement is Linda L. Meixner, with Thayer S. Warshaw, The Bible in Literature Courses: Successful Lesson Plans (Ames, IA: National Council on Religion and Public Education, 1992), as well as the items mentioned in the endnotes to the accompanying article.
Teaching Values in the Literature Classroom: A Debate in Print (Washington, DC, ERIC-REC 1992) by Charles and Bernard Suhor (Charles Suhor is a senior executive with the National Council of Teachers of English) is an important addition to the field. Charles Suhor’s, “Dealing with Values in Literature: A Public School View,” Religion & Public Education, vol. 20, numbers 1, 2, 3 (1993), pp. 49–55, provides sage advice on what a teacher can do relative to some “value” issues.
Several articles have appeared over the years in Religion & Public Education that document the fact that other courses, particularly on world religion (history) courses, have been taught without controversy.1
