This session takes up half truths that describe aspects of faith in terms of two, antithetical positions when, in reality, more options exist. These include: “faith vs. works” and “the God of the OT vs. the God of the NT."

This session explores popular statements about faith that try to take a shortcut in their explanation of complex theological topics. These include: “God helps those who help themselves” and “Love the sinner, hate the sin."

This session explores pastoral clichés, a type of Christian half truth in which a trite phrase or platitude is offered in a response to tragedy or loss. The two pastoral clichés examined in this session are: "God won’t give you more than you can handle” and “Everything happens for a reason.”

This session introduces the notion of half truths—statements that sound Christian but ultimately misrepresent God or oversimplify an aspect of faith. We consider why and where we tend to offer half truths and how we can spot them.

This session explores various responses to Paul’s odd suggestion that women should be silent in the church (1 Cor 14:33-36).

The final session of this course reconsiders the common claim that the Bible “defines” marriage as being exclusively between a man and a woman.

This session explores the priest Ezra’s shocking decree that all Israelite men should divorce their non-Israelites wives.

In this session, we examine the chilling tale of the rash vow of an Israelite judge named Jephthah and the subsequent murder of his daughter.

This sessions considers the ideology of Holy War and, in particular, God’s command for the Israelites to “devote to destruction” the Canaanites and all that belonged to them.

This session examines the book of Joshua's depiction of Israel’s militaristic conquest of the land of Canaan and the associated ethical and theological problems of divine violence.