"Tim" wrote in message
...
On Oct 8, 9:15 am, Gene wrote:
On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 05:24:40 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:





Well maybe not. But seeing the creation, religion,evolution thread is
getting so long, I thought I'd ask a hypothetical question. Well maybe
it's not as hypothetical , but here goes.

If an English lit teacher was passing out assignments assignments for
students to give a book report. Various books are chosen, some long ,
some short.

OK, the list has several *options* None are specifically required.
Here's a sample list:

"To Kill a Mockingbird"
"All Quiet one the Western Front"
"Gulliver's Travels"
"Moby Dick"
"The book of Matthew"
"Oliver Twist"
"The Trial"

etc, etc.

That is a rather complex question.

Would we be describing the reading assignment as a selection of one
out of seven fictional books? Or, can you choose the non fiction book
versus one of the six novels.....

On the face of it, given that there are choices, it would seem to be
acceptable. However, I would cry fowl on the basis that the class is
*English Literature* which, by definition, are those texts written in
English. If we are going to offer everything translated into English
as fair game, we might as well just change the course title and
syllabus to World Literature.

Given the course title, if the teacher is compelled to offer some sort
of link to a religious text, I think the Book of Common Prayer would
be more appropriate.



Notice included is the Gospel account of Matthew. Would this be
considered as promoting religion?

Probably, due to the limitations of choice.

Christianity is a religion developed from Judaism, all of which
developed in the Middle East, a region that spans southwestern Asia,
southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa.... and as far as I can
tell really has little to do with "English Literature" either
geographically, culturally, linguistically, philosophically, etc.
Thus, why offering a Christian text as an acceptable "English Text"
without also including the (surely translated) Jewish, Buddhist,
Mormon, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, Islam, Confucianism, Shinto, etc.,
etc. texts.... without even an honorable mention to Classical Paganism
which WAS the original English Religious Literature.... is a bit
cloudy.

AND! Even if it was required reading. could it be used for literary
purposes only?

I doubt that it could be, in this context.

Authorship/Style? Nobody knows who wrote the Book of Matthew and one
can't really discuss Matthew without inclusion of the other three
gospels, most notably Mark (and the non-extant Quelle source), from
which the Book of Matthew was plagiarized.

So, what are you going to ask the students to *do* with that text in
an English Literature course?
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First off, it wasn't a "bible study", Gene. and it wasn't to be such.
It was like any other book report. to give an over all critique of
what the author was trying to convey. And honestly, I really don't
rememebr what I wrte about. that was in 1972 and I dont' have the
paper.

No one *had* to chose the Matthew account.


Tim, I just want to say that this is a really thought-provoking questions!
It's quite different than trying to discuss the absolute thruth of
something, which could be more of a bible-study class... e.g., here's the
truth, no explanation needed. You could take A Christmas Carol, for example,
and examine it in it's historical context and not just that it's (great)
literature). The reason I mention the latter is because I listened to
Olbermann's hour long Special Comment last night. There was no politicizing
(or not much) and the hour flew by. He mentioned A Christmas Carol in
historical context as compared to today (with the healthcare crisis). I'm
sure it's available somewhere online. If you get a chance, I think it would
be interesting to hear your perspective.

Em

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