Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] The Bible and Suffering My New Course at UNC this Term By Bart Ehrman for the first time since roughly the Pleistocene age, I'm teaching a new and different undergraduate course at UNC this semester.
[00:00:16] It's a course I taught in a very different form when I was just starting out at rutgers, probably in 1986 or so. I haven't taught it since, and I actually don't remember how I set it up then.
[00:00:28] But now that I'm no longer teaching PhD seminars at UNC or the large Introduction to the New Testament course, Hugo Mendez is doing both of those now, I have free spots in my schedule and the course I taught all those years ago was it 39 years ago. It made a big difference to me, eventually leading to my book God's how the Bible Fails to answer our most important question, why we Suffer.
[00:00:51] At Rutgers, the course was called the Problem of Suffering in the Biblical Tradition. But to teach it here, since I didn't submit it as a new course, I have to teach it under one of the current course titles on the books, and the one that makes most sense is Religion and Violence.
[00:01:07] I started just this week and so far it's been fantastic from my point of view. About 35 students small enough still to be able to have class discussions.
[00:01:17] Here's the syllabus. I'm pretty happy with it at this point and see what you think. There's obviously a ton of ways to teach a course on religion and violence and a ton of ways even to do it on the topic I' chosen. But choices have to be made and the syllabus reflects mine.
[00:01:33] Relly 233 Religion and Violence Fall 2025 instructor Bart Ehrman Teaching Assistant Ellis Azconna Course Description and Objectives There are numerous topics and approaches one could address in a course on violence and religion. For this class we will consider one of the fundamental issues how the violence experienced so widely in the world can be reconciled with religious belief.
[00:02:02] For the sake of simplicity, we will be considering violence to be actions or events that cause physical or emotional harm.
[00:02:10] For religion, we will focus on Judaism and Christianity, especially as seen in their scriptures, the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament and the New Testament.
[00:02:20] Our ultimate question of these texts will be according to these texts, why do people suffer?
[00:02:27] The problem of suffering has been debated for as long as these religions have existed.
[00:02:33] To put the question in its most basic terms, how and why do people in a world created and controlled by an all loving and all powerful God, experience such massive and horrible suffering?
[00:02:43] If God loves people, he must want the best for them. If he has all power, he can help them whenever he chooses.
[00:02:51] So how do we explain widespread starvation, droughts, hurricanes, floods, tsunami, volcanic eruptions, wars that kill millions, a holocaust, other genocides, birth defects, plagues, epidemics, and so many other horrible things that make life miserable for millions and kill millions of others?
[00:03:13] Many people have never given much thought to the problem.
[00:03:16] Others have answers. God is punishing us. It's because of free will. It's a test from God. It's caused by Satan. Suffering makes us stronger, it will be resolved in the afterlife, and so on.
[00:03:28] Our goal in this class is not to reach the correct answer, or to convert you to one religion or religious perspective or another, or to agnosticism or atheism. It's not to deconvert you from whatever you currently think and believe, whether you're a committed fundamentalist, a wide eyed liberal atheist, or anything in between on the religious spectrum.
[00:03:47] The goal is to help all of us think widely through one of the fundamental questions of human existence, and to reflect on what the most widely purchased, read, studied, revered and cherished book in the history of Western civilization says about it.
[00:04:04] In my mind as the instructor, this makes it an unusually important class.
[00:04:09] I hope you find it useful and worthwhile.
[00:04:13] Course Objectives More specifically, the objectives of this course are to help you 1. Consider the philosophical problems connected with suffering, especially within a monotheist tradition that maintains that there's an all powerful and loving God active in a world filled with intense and extensive human suffering.
[00:04:33] 2. Consider the range of options that have been proposed within Judaism and Christianity for thousands of years and still today.
[00:04:41] 3. Become familiar with some of the most significant parts of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, to see both what the various books are about in general and how they each wrestle with the problem of suffering in particular.
[00:04:54] 4.
[00:04:55] Recognize the great diversity of views and perspectives in the Bible, a collection of 66 books written over a period of centuries by different authors, in different languages, with differing perspectives, or on various topics, including their understandings of suffering.
[00:05:11] 5.
[00:05:12] Learn how to evaluate religious claims about God and God's role in human affairs, not in order to convince you to adopt one religious view or another, but to help you learn how to think critically about religious claims. By critically, I don't mean we'll be criticizing and rejecting everything.
[00:05:28] I mean we'll learn to develop critical analytical tools to enable us to evaluate the views and the arguments of others and the views that we ourselves have.
[00:05:37] 6.
[00:05:38] Learn better how to articulate your own views about matters of religious, philosophical and historical importance 7.
[00:05:46] Develop your communication skills, both oral and written.
[00:05:50] The better you express yourself in discussion and writing, the farther you'll go. Want to go farther? Improve your communication skills.
[00:05:59] Text for the Class for reading assignments required A copy of the entire Bible in a Modern English translation, not the King James and not a paraphrase, but a translation such as the New Revised Standard Version. My personal preference? The New International Version, the New English Bible, or most anything else. I'll say more about this in class.
[00:06:23] Bart D. Ehrman, the Bible A Historical and Literary Introduction to the New Testament and Sam Harris, Free Will for writing assignments required.
[00:06:33] Harold Kushner, why Bad Things Happen to good people, Archibald McLeish, B.
[00:06:40] Eli Wiesel Knight and for further reflections. Recommended are Voltaire's Candide and Bart Er, God's Problem.
[00:06:51] Additional readings will be posted on Canvas.
[00:06:55] Attendance yes indeed. You must grace us with your presence at all class meetings. 8:00am no problem.
[00:07:03] Please let me know in advance if you have a legitimate excuse for missing a class. A visit to the hospital counts A bad hair day doesn't in class Writing Assignments each week we will take 10 minutes at the beginning of one of the class periods for a writing assignment for you to reflect on what we've been discussing in class and or what you've read for that day or week.
[00:07:27] The prompts may differ each time depending on what we cover, but there won't be any trick questions or curveballs.
[00:07:34] The assignments will be written by hand, on paper, not on computers or other devices, and they'll be turned in then and there.
[00:07:42] They will be given very basic grades.
[00:07:45] 5. Whoa. That's. That's as good as it gets.
[00:07:49] 4. Yep, that's good. You got it.
[00:07:51] 3.
[00:07:53] Okay, but not really so great. You could have paid more attention and thought a bit more.
[00:07:58] 2. Ouch.
[00:08:00] Yeah, I'm afraid you weren't paying much attention on this 1. 1. Oy vey.
[00:08:05] And 0. You literally got none here.
[00:08:10] Book Reviews we will be reading three books connected with the problem of suffering over the course of the semester. They are all short, compelling, moving and famous.
[00:08:20] If they don't make you pause, think, ponder and wrestle with the issues, then you need to find a new thinking mechanism to put on top of your shoulders.
[00:08:28] For each of these books, you'll be asked to write a three page review on a specific prompt.
[00:08:34] The information you provide in this review is to be based on your own reading and your own thought as they come out of your own brain. We do not allow the use of AI for this class. See below.
[00:08:46] We will take Measures to make sure you have not used AI. You should pledge and swear on your ancestral graves not to use AI. In short, don't use AI for these assignments.
[00:08:59] Final Examination There will also be a three hour final exam consisting of short identifications and essay questions.
[00:09:07] The final exam will be cumulative, covering everything in the course from day one.
[00:09:12] The final is set in stone by the registrar's office and ours is December 11th at 8am and it will be held in our regular classroom.
[00:09:22] It will consist of identifications, questions, possibly 10 or so to be answered in 50 words or so and in two essays. Based on all we've done over the course of the semester, it will be. It too will be handwritten in blue books.
[00:09:40] Grading the grading breakdown is attendance and participation. 20% in class writing assignments 20% book reviews 30%. That's 10% for each and the final examination. 30%.
[00:09:57] Grading Scale we're going to use a 100 point scale as follows.
[00:10:02] A is between 93 and 100 points. A 90 to 93, B 87 to 89, B 83 to 86 B 80 to 82 C 77 to 79, C 73 to 76 C 70 to 72 D 67 to 69, D 60 to 66 and F 59 and below.
[00:10:37] Office Hours My office hours are easy. Let me know if you want to come and talk. Viva voce or email b. Ermanmail unc.edu and we'll figure out a time so too with Ellis Asconanc. Edu as to which of us is best to see concerning the class. If you want to talk about the content of the lectures, the structure of the class, the iniquities of the universe, either of us will do.
[00:11:01] If you want advice on your papers or the final exam, or if you want to express concerns about a grade, you should first approach Ellis since he will be doing the grading.
[00:11:11] If for some reason you want to go to the top, however, the boss will be happy to see you.
[00:11:16] Honour Code all students must be familiar with and abide by the Honour Code, which covers issues such as plagiarism, falsification, unauthorised assistance or collaboration, cheating and other grievous acts of academic dishonesty.
[00:11:33] Violations of the Honor Code will be taken with incredible seriousness.
[00:11:38] The Honour Code applies to the course. Policy on AI. See below.
[00:11:44] Policy on AI as already indicated, use of AI is strictly forbidden in this class. See above under Book Reviews. My goal is to help you to be a more knowledgeable, conversant, communicative and interesting human being who can think reason, speak and write.
[00:12:01] My goal is not to see how well you can ask a machine a question.
[00:12:06] If you develop your intellectual abilities, if you deepen your knowledge, if you and develop better oral and writing skills in this class, I can assure that you will bless me till that momentous occasion when you pass off your mortal coil.
[00:12:20] If we detect that you have succumbed to the AI temptation, I will have a personal chat with you about the details of what you've written to see if you actually know the information inside your head. If it appears that you really have used something other than your own human intelligence to write your paper, you can expect to be cast out into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Or barring that, I will report you to the Wise committee that maintains order and decency in our part of the universe. That's the University Honours Committee, and I'll have them deal with you as they see fit.
[00:12:53] Reasonable Accommodations Policy if you have a disability that may prevent fully demonstrating your abilities, you should contact Accessibility Services as soon as possible to discuss accommodations. I will do everything I can to help out Title 9 resources any student who is impacted by discrimination, harassment, interpersonal or relationship violence, sexual violence, sexual exploitation, or stalking is encouraged to seek resources on campus or in the community.
[00:13:27] To discuss your specific needs. Please contact the the Director of Report and Response, Rebecca Gibson, rmgibsonnc.edu 919-445-1578 Report and Response Coordinators in the Equal Opportunity and compliance office. That's reportandresponsenc.edu. counselling and Psychological Services, which is confidential or the Gender violence services coordinators, GVSCNC. Eduardo Additional resources are available at www.safe.unc.edu Class schedule and assignments Aug. 19 welcome to the course.
[00:14:11] Aug. 21 the problem of Theodicy Reading is the Cambridge Companion to the Problem of Evil, edited by Chad Meister and Paul poser. Read pages 1 to 10 on canvas.
[00:14:24] August 26th Introduction to the Old Testament the reading is BHLI. That's the Bible Historical and Literary Introduction. Pages 1 to 22.
[00:14:37] August 28th Introduction to the New Testament Reading BHLI Pages 23, 32.
[00:14:45] September 2nd Suffering as a punishment for wrongdoing the Book of Amos reading Amos chapters 1 to 9, then read chapters 3 to 5 three times.
[00:14:56] Also read BHLI pages 123, 130.
[00:15:01] September 4 suffering as punishment for wrongdoing from the Garden of Eden to the Flood reading Genesis chapters 1 to 9, then read chapters 2, 4, 3 times.
[00:15:12] Then read BHLI pages 33 50.
[00:15:16] September 9 suffering as punishment for wrongdoing the Book of Deuteronomy reading Deuteronomy chapter 5, chapters 10 to 11, chapters 2728 then read chapters 27, 28 three times and BHLI pages 83, 89.
[00:15:37] September 11th book review and discussion of Harold Kushner When Bad Things Happen to good people September 16 suffering as a test Abraham and Isaac Genesis 12, Genesis chapters 15, 18, 21, 22 then read chapters 2122 three times September 18 suffering as a the Narrative of Job reading job chapters 1 7, 3842 and then chapters 1 to 2 and chapter 423 times BHLI pages 206 to 207 and 210 to 214.
[00:16:20] September 23 the Reality of Human Evil Exodus reading Exodus chapters 1 to 14, then chapters 1 to 23 times BHLI pages 62 to 69.
[00:16:33] September 25 the Reality of Human the Conquest narrative reading numbers 15, chapters 31, 32 Joshua chapters 1, 2 and chapter 6 then Joshua 63 times VHLI pages 90 to 98.
[00:16:53] September 30 Redemptive the Joseph narrative reading Genesis chapters 37, 50, then read chapter 53 times October 2 Review and discussion of Eli Wiesel Night October 7 Wellness Day get well October 9 Redemptive Suffering Second Isaiah reading Isaiah chapter 4153 then read chapters 52, 533 times BHLI pages to be confirmed October 14 Is Their Free Will Reading Sam Harris Free Will October 16 Fall Break Don't Break Anything October 21 Redemptive Suffering The Gospel of Mark reading Mark chapters 1 to 3, chapters 10 to 16, then chapter 153 times BHLI pages 258 and 259, pages 261 and 270.
[00:17:58] October 23 Are There Always Silver Linings?
[00:18:02] Reading to be confirmed October 28 the Powers of Evil the Book of Daniel reading Daniel chapters 1 to 8, then chapter 73 times BHLI pages 199, 201 pages 222, 229 October 30 the powers of evil Jesus reading Matthew chapter 58 and chapters 24 to 25, then chapter 243 times BHLI pages 271 to 277 November November 4 God as Savior and destroyer the Book of revelation reading Revelation 1, 9, 13 to 14, then chapters 5 to 6 three times and BHLI pages 379 to 385.
[00:18:57] November 6 God as Savior and destroyer the Book of Revelation reading Revelation chapters 17, 22 then chapters 17 and 21 three times.
[00:19:11] November 17th does the end justify the middle reading to be confirmed?
[00:19:17] November 13 suffering as senseless Ecclesiastes reading Ecclesiastes chapters 1 to 12, then chapters 1, 2, 4 and 63 times BHLI pages 218221 November 18 suffering as senseless poetic section reading Job chapters 89, chapter 14, chapter 16, chapter 27, chapter 31 and chapters 3842 chapters 40, 423 times BHLI pages 210 to 217 November 20 review and discussion of Archibald McLeish November 25 no class November 27 Thanksgiving and December 2 wrapping it up.
