Embodied Readers: Teaching about the Earliest Christians in Rural Protestant America

This article discusses the ways in which my Introduction to the New Testament class at the University of Tennessee engages with and offers students tools for understanding and participating in social activism, particularly around race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexuality, and class. In recent year...

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Autor principal:	Tina Shepardson
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	University of Sheffield 2020
Materias:	new testament appalachia bible belt social justice The Bible BS1-2970
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/67a8682dacd9477f9fa30879dc26c4b3
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:67a8682dacd9477f9fa30879dc26c4b3
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:67a8682dacd9477f9fa30879dc26c4b32021-11-18T14:47:02ZEmbodied Readers: Teaching about the Earliest Christians in Rural Protestant America2633-069510.17613/4snc-wq82https://doaj.org/article/67a8682dacd9477f9fa30879dc26c4b32020-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://hcommons.org/deposits/view/hc:32450/CONTENT/11-shepardson-embodied.pdf/https://doaj.org/toc/2633-0695This article discusses the ways in which my Introduction to the New Testament class at the University of Tennessee engages with and offers students tools for understanding and participating in social activism, particularly around race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexuality, and class. In recent years I have added new readings and class projects to the syllabus explicitly to encourage students to consider ways in which interpretations influence our conversations on LGBTQ+ rights, feminism, and racial and economic justice. In addition to covering the early history and context of the New Testament texts, my course teaches students to recognize how readers’ own embodied experiences affect their culturally contingent reading of these influential texts. The region of Appalachia is largely rural and economically depressed; deeply held conservative Protestant strains of Christianity pervade this “the Bible belt” region, and Donald Trump won Appalachia easily in the 2016 presidential election. A new wave of student activism has developed on campus in response to recent national events and to the concurrent rise in polarizing rhetoric in our country. I demonstrate here some of the concrete ways I am adapting my classroom teaching about the New Testament to engage with these urgent local, regional, national, and global conversations and the activism they are inspiring.Tina ShepardsonUniversity of Sheffieldarticlenew testamentappalachiabible beltsocial justiceThe BibleBS1-2970ENJournal for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies, Vol 2, Iss 1, Pp 208-223 (2020)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	new testament appalachia bible belt social justice The Bible BS1-2970
spellingShingle	new testament appalachia bible belt social justice The Bible BS1-2970 Tina Shepardson Embodied Readers: Teaching about the Earliest Christians in Rural Protestant America
description	This article discusses the ways in which my Introduction to the New Testament class at the University of Tennessee engages with and offers students tools for understanding and participating in social activism, particularly around race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexuality, and class. In recent years I have added new readings and class projects to the syllabus explicitly to encourage students to consider ways in which interpretations influence our conversations on LGBTQ+ rights, feminism, and racial and economic justice. In addition to covering the early history and context of the New Testament texts, my course teaches students to recognize how readers’ own embodied experiences affect their culturally contingent reading of these influential texts. The region of Appalachia is largely rural and economically depressed; deeply held conservative Protestant strains of Christianity pervade this “the Bible belt” region, and Donald Trump won Appalachia easily in the 2016 presidential election. A new wave of student activism has developed on campus in response to recent national events and to the concurrent rise in polarizing rhetoric in our country. I demonstrate here some of the concrete ways I am adapting my classroom teaching about the New Testament to engage with these urgent local, regional, national, and global conversations and the activism they are inspiring.
format	article
author	Tina Shepardson
author_facet	Tina Shepardson
author_sort	Tina Shepardson
title	Embodied Readers: Teaching about the Earliest Christians in Rural Protestant America
title_short	Embodied Readers: Teaching about the Earliest Christians in Rural Protestant America
title_full	Embodied Readers: Teaching about the Earliest Christians in Rural Protestant America
title_fullStr	Embodied Readers: Teaching about the Earliest Christians in Rural Protestant America
title_full_unstemmed	Embodied Readers: Teaching about the Earliest Christians in Rural Protestant America
title_sort	embodied readers: teaching about the earliest christians in rural protestant america
publisher	University of Sheffield
publishDate	2020
url	https://doaj.org/article/67a8682dacd9477f9fa30879dc26c4b3
work_keys_str_mv	AT tinashepardson embodiedreadersteachingabouttheearliestchristiansinruralprotestantamerica
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Embodied Readers: Teaching about the Earliest Christians in Rural Protestant America

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