Faith & Formation The Art of Bible Stories
You already know these stories. You have known them for years, maybe your whole life, and you can probably guess what happens next before it happens. That familiarity is comfortable, but it also lets a story hide the very details it was written to show you. The Art of Bible Stories is a practice-first class on reading Scripture's narratives the way they were built to be read, one detail, one repetition, one silence at a time. Across nine cinematic episodes, grounded in twenty years of Old Testament teaching, you will practise noticing what a story includes, what it repeats, and what it leaves out, and learn why each choice carries meaning. This is not a technique to master. It is something slower and more durable: reading with enough attention that familiar stories become unfamiliar again.
Class Price
One-time payment • Lifetime access
- Lifetime access to this one class
- All episodes, resources, and downloads
- Access on all devices
Or get this + ALL classes
with annual membership for
The Premise
What you'll practise
Notice the detail a story chose to include
Pick a detail Scripture chose to include, and ask why it's there instead of reading past it.
Track what a storyteller repeats
Notice what repeats in a familiar passage, and ask what it's drawing your attention to.
Read character through action, not summary
Watch what a character does and says, and let that tell you who they are, rather than reaching straight for a verdict.
Return to a favourite story with new eyes
Apply everything you've practised to the passage you know best, and notice what's different this time.
The Art of Bible Stories
-
The Art of Bible Stories - Free Access
- Episode 1 - Bible Stories: How They Differ From Ours
-
The Art of Bible Stories
- Episode 2 - The Significance of Simple Repetition
- Episode 3 - Repetition With Variation or Deviation
- Episode 4 - How Do We Get to Know Characters?
- Episode 5 - Types of Characters
- Episode 6 - The Plot
- Episode 7 - How Narrative Episodes Are Arranged
- Episode 8 - Putting It All Together
- Episode 9 - Where Have We Arrived?
MEET YOUR INSTRUCTOR
Dr Laurence Turner
For more than twenty years, Dr Laurence Turner taught Old Testament studies at Newbold College of Higher Education, and wrote the commentaries on 1 and 2 Samuel for the Seventh-day Adventist International Bible Commentary. His teaching centres on how biblical narrative actually works, the craft behind Bible stories, and what that craft reveals once you learn to notice it.
READY TO see them again?
The stories you already know are waiting to surprise you. Nine episodes. One detail at a time.
One-time payment • Lifetime access
