interesting question …
I just received this email from a chaplain …
I am a chaplain in a minimum security prison for women, and I am looking for good Bible study materials that would support the “New Kind of Christian.” I have one inmate in particular who was reared by parents who were atheists, and Brian McLaren’s books are having a tremendous influence on her life as she is coming to a new-found faith. Most Bible study material, particularly anything that is free to inmates, is definitely not of a “generous orthodoxy!”
Two things struck me as I thought about this question. First, I’ve been noticing more than ever how many chaplains are “ahead of the curve” in dealing with the “great emergence” we’re part of. Many (not all!) pastors, professors, and denominational officials can stay in their comfortable echo chambers in a way that chaplains can’t – whether they’re serving in hospitals, prisons, universities, retirement centers, or elsewhere.
Second, whether it’s for adult Bible study or kids and youth curriculum, we need some creative people to generate “a new kind of curriculum” to help folks.
Maybe this thread should be picked up elsewhere – maybe at the emergentvillage.com blog, which, if you haven’t checked it out lately, is better-than-ever. A number of questions come to mind – what’s unhelpful about existing curricula, what heuristic changes are needed, and what content innovations are needed so the Bible can be liberated from the modernist, colonialist, chauvinist, individualist, etc. etc. biases under which it is often held captive?
