Read the Bible's most ancient half like a scholar — and feel it like a believer

Maybe you've read the Old Testament before — or parts of it. Maybe you grew up hearing these stories in church or synagogue, or you encountered them in a literature class, or you've simply felt, for years, that there's something in these ancient pages you haven't quite been able to reach. You sense the depth. You sense the weight. But every time you try to go deeper on your own, the text feels distant, or confusing, or like you're missing something everyone else seems to know.

I've spent years teaching these texts, and I can tell you: you're not missing intelligence or faith or seriousness. You're missing context. The Old Testament was written in a world utterly unlike ours — a world of ancient Near Eastern empires, oral traditions, covenant politics, and literary conventions that were second nature to the original audience and invisible to modern readers. Once you have that context, the whole thing opens up. Passages that seemed opaque become luminous. Stories that seemed primitive reveal extraordinary sophistication. And the great theological themes — covenant, exile, redemption, the cry of the suffering righteous — start to feel like what they really are: the most human questions ever asked, and some of the most enduring answers ever given.

This school is my attempt to give you everything I give students in a serious biblical studies classroom — without the jargon, without the gatekeeping, and without forcing you to choose between your intellect and your reverence. We will use historical-critical tools because they work. We will read these texts as literature because they are literature — extraordinary literature. And we will take seriously the theological claims these texts make, because ignoring them would be a failure of honesty, not a mark of academic rigor. Jewish readers, Christian readers, secular readers, and everyone in between will find something here that meets them where they are.

What I want for you, by the end of this school, is not just knowledge — it's confidence. The confidence to open Isaiah 40 and know what world produced it and what it meant to people in exile. The confidence to read Job's arguments and understand why the book refuses to give easy answers. The confidence to engage in a conversation about these texts — in a seminary seminar, an interfaith dialogue, a Bible study, or around a dinner table — and hold your own, with both humility and conviction.

These texts shaped civilization. They are worth your serious attention. And I am genuinely honored to be your guide through them. Come, let's read together.