Trinity Forum: The Deuteronomist & His History, Part II

Trinity Episcopal Church in Concord invites you to its Sunday morning Adult Forum, Trinity's adult education program, which meets weekly at 9 AM to hear speakers sharing their experiences on one of six themes — word, worship, wonder, world, witness, work — each being an important aspect connecting faith with everyday life.  Trinity's complete Forum schedule is available at http://trinityconcord.org/forum.shtml.

On Sunday, October 27 at 9 AM we continue our exploration of the largest section (24%) of the Old Testament attributable to a single source (or school)—the Deuteronomistic History, which runs from the book of Deuteronomy itself though the books of Joshua, Judges, I & II Samuel and I & II Kings.  This section of the Old Testament is not so much a history, as a theologically framed interpretation of the history of Israel from the time of Moses (whose speech Deuteronomy purports to be) though the conquest/settlement of the Promised Land, the period of the rule of the Judges, the establishment of the Davidic and northern kingdoms, and ending with the disaster that befell both Israel and Judah with the conquest by Assyria and the Neo-Babylonian empires.
 
We will look at the themes of this history and how those themes influenced other sections of the Old Testament—most notably, the first four books of the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers).  These themes—the idea of Covenant, the dangers of idolatry, the promise/threat of God’s judgment of God on rulers and subjects alike, and the messianic promise found in the history of the David kingdom—are central to all of Old Testament theology.
 
Hint:  get a “leg up” by reading these books ahead of time!

Jim Wood, a member of Trinity Episcopal Church in Concord and past Junior Warden, is a graduate of Yale University; he holds graduate degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo in American and English History.  After a career in software development and management, he became the Parish Administrator of the Church of the Advent in Boston in 1997.  He has been a serious, and largely self-taught, student of the Bible for over twenty years.

Trinity's invited Forum speakers come from many walks of life and have addressed all manner of topics -- serious, mysterious, personal and world-focussed. Among our recent topics are pilgrimage, faith lost and found, histories and Biblical persons, death, dying and grieving, parenting, stewardship, education, and much more.

Childcare begins in Trinity's nursery at 9 AM; Trinity's buildings are fully accessible.  For further information on this or other programs at Trinity, please call our Parish Office, 978/369-3715, or visit us online at http://www.trinityconcord.org.