New Bible Course Starting this January!
We’ve been encouraged by the growing interest in deeper, thoughtful engagement with Scripture.
In Fall 2024, we hosted Catching the Spark with Dr. Derek Suderman — a dynamic exploration of how we read the Bible together. That series focused on collaborative learning, reflective questions, and the kind of open-ended, dialogical study that invites Scripture to speak in fresh ways. It sparked lively discussion and a renewed appreciation for how the Bible shapes and challenges us in community.
Building on that momentum, we launched The Bible Course as a weekly online study in January 2025. The series gave a broad introduction to the overarching story of Scripture and how it connects with everyday life and faith.
Now, we’re excited to share our next offering in this growing thread of study scripture as a community.
Starting in January, Ministry Forum will host Chaos and Cosmos: Creation Texts of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) — an 8-week online study led by Dr. Christine Mitchell, Professor of Hebrew Bible and Academic Dean at Knox College. This series will run from January 15 to March 5, 2026 and will offer participants an opportunity to explore the Bible’s creation stories through a variety of lenses, from ancient myth to ecological theology, gender, and beyond.
About the Course
Chaos and Cosmos is an exploration of creation texts in the Hebrew Bible. Together, participants will examine stories from Genesis, Psalms, Job, Isaiah, and other texts, engaging themes such as myth and story, ecological readings, feminist and gendered interpretations, and both ancient and modern re-tellings.
Course Details
Dates: Thursdays starting January 15th running through March 5, 2026
Time: 7:00–8:30 PM Eastern Time
Location: Online (via Zoom)
Cost: $25
Participants are asked to bring a Bible to each session. Appropriate translations include the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), the New Jewish Publication Society Tanakh (JPS), the Common English Bible (CEB), or the New International Version (NIV).
At the end of each class, Dr. Mitchell will provide a short reading for the next week. For those who wish to explore further, suggested readings will be drawn from Ronald Hendel’s edited volume Reading Genesis: Ten Methods (Cambridge University Press, 2010). This is a scholarly text and may be more challenging for those new to academic biblical studies, but it will serve as a helpful supplement for those interested in going deeper. You can find the book here.
Bonus! WIN A FREE BOOK!
Those who register before December 31 will be entered into a draw to win one of five free copies of Reading Genesis: Ten Methods, edited by Ronald Hendel. This scholarly volume is used as an optional companion text for the course and offers a range of interpretive approaches to the Genesis creation narratives. Winners will be contacted in early January.
Session Schedule
January 15: Introducing Genesis 1–3 and creation stories
January 22: Ancient Near Eastern creation stories
January 29: Myth and story: how does Genesis work?
February 5: Women, gender, and Genesis
February 12: Reading Genesis ecologically
February 19: Ancient and modern readings and re-tellings of creation
February 26: Other biblical creation stories: Psalms, Proverbs, Job
March 5: Other biblical creation stories: Isaiah
Facilitator
Dr. Christine Mitchell PhD, Professor of Hebrew Bible, Knox College
Christine joined Knox College in 2022 as Academic Dean and Professor of Hebrew Bible.
Christine is a scholar of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), with particular interest in 1-2 Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, and the book of Judges. With degrees in Near Eastern Archaeology (BA, Wilfrid Laurier University), Religious Studies (MA, Carleton University), and Comparative Literary Studies (PhD, Carleton University), she brings interdisciplinary perspectives to the study of biblical texts, biblical worlds, and modern interpretation. She has particular interests in the biblical books mentioned above, as well as in the literature and history of the Persian and Hellenistic periods across the ancient eastern Mediterranean area. When working with modern interpretive methods, she is interested in feminist and gender studies, and especially in how settler-Canadians approach biblical studies in the era of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Christine is a United Church of Canada layperson, and previously served for nineteen years (2002-2021) as Professor of Hebrew Scriptures at St. Andrew’s College, Saskatoon, a theological school of the United Church. She is a past-President of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies and was the founding editor of the Advancing Studies in Religion series at McGill-Queen’s University Press. She has been a member of a number of editorial boards and is active in several scholarly societies.
Her personal website is christine-mitchell.ca, where you can find links to her publications.
We hope you’ll consider joining us for this thoughtful and engaging journey through the Bible’s creation texts.