Teaching the Bible: An American Classic
An ONLINE course with Dr. Dan Russ
Four Tuesdays, February 4, 11, 18, 25, 2025
6:00 PM–8:00 PM
Educator Members: Free
Non-Educator Members: $48
Non-members: $60
The Bible, this Judeo-Christian anthology of 66 books, is a world classic that has had a tremendous influence on the American Experiment, as George Washington called it. The Bible has informed the minds and imaginations of political leaders like Washington, Lincoln, and King as well as the great American writers like Hawthorne, Melville, Faulkner, Hemingway, O’Connor, and Morrison, to name a few. It is not just for those who believe in God or who are Bible scholars.
In this course, MacMillan Institute Senior Faculty and Consultant Dr. Dan Russ will teach four biblical books through the lens of literary genres: Genesis, Exodus, Job, and Psalms. Each of the four classes will open with an overview of the book by Dr. Russ and will finish with a seminar discussion.
Dr. L. Daniel Russ is uniquely qualified to teach a course on the Bible as literature.
He holds an M.A. in biblical studies and a Ph.D. in literature. He has taught and published on the Bible as literature for over forty years. He studied for his biblical and literary degrees at the same years and was struck by how much he learned about the Bible from his study of literature and how much many books of the Bible deeply resonated with great literature. in his doctoral work, Dr. Russ studied Aristotle’s four kinds of “poetry” with Dr. Louise Cowan. Through her theory, he saw that a number of biblical books read as comedy, tragedy, epic, and lyric forms, and this led him to write his doctoral dissertation on The Song of Solomon as lyric poetry.
Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”
A course with Dr. Onyema Nweze
Three Thursdays, March 13, 20, and 27, 2025
6:00 PM–8:00 PM
Reception at 5:30 PM
Educator Members: Free
Non-Educator Members: $72
Non-members: $90
A novel that tells the epic story of Oluale Kossola, renamed Cudjo Lewis, Barracoon tells of a man “transfixed between two worlds, fully belonging to neither.” Join us this March at the MacMillan Institute as we discuss the story of this epic hero and the movement of a people from the shores of Africa to the building of Africatown. The final class will be a viewing of the 2022 documentary about the Clotilda.
Re-imagining Our World
A course with Dr. Rodney Teague
Four Tuesdays, April 1, 8, 15, and 22, 2025
6:00 PM–8:00 PM
Reception at 5:30 PM
Educator Members: Free
Non-Educator Members: $96
Non-members: $120
What does it mean to live with imagination? To live in the world “so that events are experiences that touch us, move us, appeal to us” rather than wash over us in dulling waves. How can we reenchant our daily routines in an increasingly technological and literal-minded world?
In four classes, clinical psychologist Dr. Rodney Teague will guide us through the tenets of one of psychology’s landmark texts—James Hillman’s 1975 master work, Re-Visioning Psychology.
Dr. Teague is a licensed clinical psychologist with over twenty years of psychotherapy experience. A wonderful teacher, most of Dr. Teague’s practice has been within the VA mental health system where he works primarily with Veterans diagnosed with serious mental illnesses.
Purchase your own book—ISBN: 0060905638.
Please register by noon on Tuesday, April 1.