Overview of the course

The Catholic Church goes through a period of intensive reflection and discernment.

One of the root problems hindering progress in the so necessary reforms in the Catholic Church is a wide-spread misunderstanding of crucial texts in Sacred Scripture. That is why we offer this special course for online study. It consists of ten lessons, formulated as principles, with many case studies of scriptural passages.

Case studiesC1. Jesus curses a fig tree C2. The eucharistic words of Jesus
C3. six-day creationC4. hardening the Pharaoh’s heart
C5. Jesus and slaveryC6. Jesus chose only men
C7. The parable of the lost sheepC8. Wives subject to husbands
C9. Hell fireC10. Homosexuality
C11. Women should veil their heads C12. Children punished for a parent’s sins
C13. The creation and punishment of womanC14. The twelve apostles were men (enlarged)
C15. Galileo Galilei and the moving of the sun.C16. The taking of interest
C17. Does the Devil exist? C18. the midrash of the Magi
C19. Carrying our crossC20. The meaning of the ‘Our Father’

Why study the correct interpretation of Scripture
as an online course?

photograph by Kostya Zloschastyev

Most of us are aware of the many mistakes that have been made on account of a wrong understanding of scriptural texts. Six-day creation, slavery, racism, the suppression of women and the persecution of homosexuals have been justified on the basis of Scripture. Similar mistakes continue to be made.

Most of us have read texts that try to explain one problem text or the other. But this often still leaves us with the uneasy feeling that the answers are just created to get us out of a tough spot. Can we trust the interpretation of reformers? To resolve the problem once and for all, and with entire satisfacion, we have to go to the root of things. We need to explore the nature of the inspired Scriptures themselves – why they are vulnerable to cause misunderstandings.

A lasting solution requires some study on our part, a study that is:

methodical

thorough

exploring the nature of inspired scripture itself.

This requires studying it as a course.

You can study the course by yourself, just following the route through documents that we suggest. But if you register as a student of the course, you obtain additional benefits:

* the support of a tutor to whom you can write

* access to a special section on Interpreting Scripture Correctly in CIRCLES so that you can share your questions and findings with other students of the course

* a certificate of completion of the course if you fulfil certain requirements set by the tutor.

How to follow the course online

  1. Bookmark this page.
  2. Study the ten lessons outlined below in the right sequence – from one to ten.
  3. Examine the two case studies linked to each lesson before moving to the next lesson.
  4. You can determine your own pace – completing the lessons quickly or spacing them over a number of weeks (one lesson + case studies a week?)
  5. At any time you may want to re-visit the previous lessons and/or case studies to recall what you have learnt in them.

Go to Lesson One here!