Reading Scripture in Public (Udemy.com)

The course, reading scripture in public, has changed the way I look at the importance of reading scripture. The content is amazing, and N. T. Wright’s teaching is easy to understand with each section adding depth to the previous, painting a picture of why reading scripture in public is integral to a Christian life. The teaching has added so much to my understanding of the history and context of what the scripture is saying, and a deeper relationship with God.

This coursed was: Inspiring to imagine the Scripture as an all-encompassing story--creation -to-new creation. Challenging to rethink about how to practice public reading and interpreting Scripture. Convicting about my laziness with scripture reading. Motivational to put inro practice reading whole books of the Bible on my own and with friends. Exciting--I'm looking forward to feasting on God's Story. Thank you for making this available. I'm gonna tell my friends to view this course. Grace, peace and smiles! Goldie Bell Anderson

Excellent short course. Very interesting insights and observations with regard to the value of Scripture in our lives. I'm particularly blessed by the understanding of Deuteronomy 6 as instilling in us the importance of Scripture as being integrated into our daily living and establishing a worldview that becomes foundational and underlies and governs our everyday lives. Nicely done, Professor Wright.

My expectation in buying the course was that I would learn how to be a better reader in public, I.e. the mechanics. What I discovered was an opening of my eyes to the whole focus of the Bible, taking me closer to Jesus and encouraging me to share my experience with the Bible with courage and enthusiasm.

As with all the N.T.Wright courses, the content was five stars. I give the course only four because, as in all the courses, the quizzes were so frustrating. Either the answers were obvious, or they were impossible because there was more than one right answer or they depended on your remembering the exact words that NTW had said. Please re-think these quizzes.

Excellent course content, long awaited to hear this information. Churches really do only give scripture minimal air time in our services & the rest of the time is usually about 'me'. (From the Western worldview). The content & the delivery of Tom Wright has excited me enough for me to want to read my bible more than I do already. People who take this course may be encouraged to take our bible reading into the wider community as Bill Hwang has done & hey, watch what happens! I liked fewer questions as I am of the older age group & my memory let's me down but the fact that the questions are there to re-inforce what has been said, the research & hearing again the particular lecture helps me to cement the content in my brain. Thank you Mr Wright for sharing your love & knowlege with the world. God bless you.

I would have liked more church history about the public reading of scripture. How did the early church fathers do it? How did monks do it? How did the reformers do it? Great exposition and great choices of texts. NT Wright is a phenomenal teacher. And it was a free course, so I suppose I shouldn’t be asking for more but thankful for what I got. :)

I was intrigued by the course title, thinking perhaps it might be a work of homiletics, or maybe even a practical guide for reading in liturgy - how one might prepare with study and prayer, how proclaiming from the pulpit is not the same as simply reading aloud, or how one understands the task as requiring kenosis, that as earthen vessels, we need to adopt the right stance and pace and tone that the Word might be sounded through us. I was surprised and gratified that it was something even better. Tom Wright stands on a digital platform, proclaiming and interpreting God's Word on reading God's Word. This work deserves a broad hearing. As a member of the Catholic tradition, I see it as a call to get real about our vocations as kings, prophets, and priests so that we renew ourselves and remedy our dependence on clerics with feet of clay. As a father of millenials, I see the discussion of Paul's instruction to Timothy as a playbook for handing off our mission to the next generation and for our kids to step up and grab hold of their mission in their generation. As a follower of Jesus and son of Abba, I see this as the medicine to help us break away from the habit of chunking the Word into pieces or verses, and to keep our eyes on the origin and horizon that we may see the whole Story and find out own place in it as we await the New Jerusalem. This is Bishop Wright at his best, very literally translating Timothy himself, explaining 2 Kings and Ezra with humble respect for our sisters and brothers of the First Covenant, demonstrating that unless we understand our Semitic roots we simply don't understand what we're really about. And all delivered free of academic jargon, free from wide-ranging in the theological issue du jour. Wright's simple, friendly, direct, and authoritative manner is both educational and formative. Start here to understand how to be a follower of Jesus in a post-Christian culture. And for any academics out there, I'd wager that MacIntyre's new St. Benedict would be more like Tom Wright than Rod Dreher, and that's not a slam on Mr. Dreher.

Inspiring! In a world where there are a thousand distractions competing for our time, and even many churches have lost their emphasis on Scripture, this course is a great resource and encouragement to simply read the Bible! Prof. Wright uses examples throughout the ancient world (in Scripture) where the people took time to read the Scriptures together publicly. For those who feel afraid to lead a Bible study, just invite people over and read the Bible together! The early Christians did this, and it's as simple as that! You can show them this course as an introduction, and it will inspire them!

Beforehand I wondered what "Reading scripture in public" actually means. I quickly received an answer to that question through the surprising connections that Professor Wright made with the choice of Bible texts. As always, this yielded a wealth of insights. In particular the emphasis on telling and explaining the gospels over and over again (but also the rest of the Scripture) was, again, a renewal of the mind for me.