Course Leader:  Dave Tomlinson

Course Date:  Monday 1 - Wednesday 3 March

Course Options: 

Residential - £414 Non-Residential - £263
Early Bird:
Residential - £393 Non-Residential - £249

Course Timings:  Course starts at 6:00pm, ends after lunch

Course Code:  R0327

Course Information: 

How to read the Old Testament without falling sleep  or becoming incensed

For good reasons, many of us struggle with the Old Testament. It can seem full of violence, barbarism and misogyny — with a God who is vengeful, tribalistic and sometimes downright unpleasant. But what if the biggest problem is not the Old Testament itself, but the way we’ve been taught to read it?

Moving far away from crippling literalism and the ways Christianity has too often misappropriated Old Testament texts, this retreat offers a fresh encounter with the Hebrew Scriptures,. We’ll explore radical Jewish interpretations, critical and contemporary approaches, and — importantly — the surprisingly inventive ways Jesus himself read and reimagined these ancient texts.

We’ll discover how familiar stories can look very different when we change the lens through which we read them, and how the Old Testament continues to ferment in modern poetry, art and music.

Above all, we’ll explore what these strange, messy, troubling and often beautiful human stories — and their equally messy perceptions of God — might have to say to us now.

Rather than a book of answers, perhaps the Old Testament is a swarming compost of possibilities: stories, arguments, poems, dreams, failures, longings and glimpses of God, all breaking down and becoming something new.

Come and see what might grow.

Course Leader Information: 

Dave Tomlinson is an Anglican priest, writer and speaker whose books include How to Be a Bad Christian , OMG! A Bad Christian's Book of Prayers  and The Post-Evangelical . He is Chaplain to St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation & Peace, hosts The Holy Shed  podcast, and holds a Master's degree in biblical interpretation.