Worthwhile article about one very practical result of religious faith-- it provides motivation to develop literary skills. Obviously religion is just one factor. We doubtless have all known people who hardly have a religious bone in their body, yet who are writing talents. So, let's not discount "other" factors, the interests of one's parents, for example, the influence of a popular book that you find extremely important, and 100 similar reasons. But it seems self-evidently true that if you are religious and take your faith's scriptures seriously as vital to life, you will want to read the texts closely to get full meaning. You will want to know "all the details," and find out the best ways to analyze various sacred writings. Conscientiousness is also part of the picture. Everything you do, said Paul, is judged by the Lord. Everything. In a sense there is no such thing as an unimportant action. So, if you are genuinely religious you do it all for eternity. For Christ. For the Holy Spirit. For the Father. Everything is supposed to serve that purpose. For Jews the rationale is similar. --and Jewish learning is legendary. The Bible , to get the most from it, requires serious study. And what is a good sermon but, certainly in part, a lesson in textual analysis ? HOW should a text be read ? In the process you need to pay attention to all the details, any one of which may hold the key to understanding some vital truth. Maybe not everyone thinks like this, but there are many who do, and for all of them, the Bible inspires not only spiritual longings, but desire for such things as cultivating communication skills, literary skills, and learning about history, everything from the time of Abraham to the time of Jesus and beyond --into the many centuries of Christian history. Which can be re-inforced if you are inspired by Luther, say, or the Wesleys, people who were deeply interested in the world of books of all kinds. And, of course, the same goes for Catholics and their exemplars like Aquinas. All of which is a roundabout way of saying that here is an argument for inclusion of Bible studies in public education. I'd add some additional sacred books, as you might guess, but to say the least, the value of the Bible is inestimable. It is also very "estimable" if Mandel's point is correct, that religion enhances literary skills. To be crass about it, such skills have real world career value. But this is one kind of practical argument that is part of the conversation whenever education is an issue, isn't it ? Why not turn things to our advantage ? Billy ========================================= --------------------------------------------------------------------- Jerusalem Post
‘Jewish heritage, tradition essential to our culture' By JONAH MANDEL 07/04/2010 Does being religious enhance literary skills? The Education Ministry on Tuesday released the breakdown of the latest results of matriculation exams (bagrut) in literature, for the school year 2007/2008, and seven of the 10 high schools with the best averages, including the top five, were religious institutions. Bar-Ilan University Prof. Ephraim Hazan, who also served as a supervisor over literature studies in the religious education system, was cited by Israel Radio on Tuesday as explaining that “the religious youth is more connected to the [Jewish] sources and the Hebrew language of the sources, while the secular youth is unfortunately disconnecting from it, in certain aspects.” “When our students read Agnon, it really comes to life for them,” the jubilant teacher told The Jerusalem Post, referring to the Nobel laureate whose corpus is rich with references and allusions to the Jewish tradition and sources. “But you need to utilize the preliminary connection, to inspire the students, to impassion them. “An important aspect is the method of teaching, which in our case, is a round table with all the implications – a group of us sitting together, debating, discussing, listening to one another – much like traditional Jewish scholarship,” Zim continued, contrasting that method to one in which a single authority puts forth a thesis. “Our approach promotes the capacity to analyze and scrutinize texts, but more importantly, genuinely connects the students to the material. The students learn to ask questions, and to love the subject matter. It becomes part of their soul.”
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