Instructor: Matt Albanese

Sharp disagreement exists regarding how Christians should speak. Surely Paul prohibits corrupting talk, filthiness, foolishness, and crude joking. And even though certain sins and vices are not even to be named, the Corinthian correspondence is no prudish stroll though the Christian living bookstore shelves. Numbers, Genesis, Deuteronomy, and Songs belong on this list as well. Revelation should also have a spot among the vulgar and obscene. Remember, the supper of God in chapter 19 serves up a course of human remains.

The book of Proverbs encourages both life-giving speech and discourages sharp and biting words. But then it offers sharp criticism of fools and sluggards. And describes in plentiful detail the cosmic prostitute who evangelizes her prey with honey-sweet speech, the spices of sexual enticement, and highly suggestive anatomy. The language is almost too evocative for the prude. But the cosmic bride of wisdom does exactly the same things. God even offers to the godly her intoxicating breasts. And what about the prophets? Well, they don’t hold back. Have you read Jeremiah and Ezekiel? It’s gross.

Can these poles be balanced? Can the Christian look like and embody the Bible’s own approach to evocative expression and speech? Or should they keep its ethic and do away with its form, keeping the kernel and removing the husk? Or do the Scriptures require full embodiment of tota biblia, a serrated edge and an irenic spirit ? Or are we confined to mere pacifistic expression?

This course explores Scriptural testimony and assesses a groundwork for thinking about the world of pervasive obscenity–dysphemism–in the Bible, and how euphemism is the normative example of expression. Until it isn’t. And when the Scriptures aren’t euphemistic, they hit readers and hearers with direct and explicit content concerning physical maladies, excreta, and sexual misconduct. When the Bible is the most obscene in content, it is the most explicit in speech. It knows how to covenant curse.

The course is structured around a survey of contemporary figures and discussions about sarcasm, satire, mockery, and profanity in Christian discourse. It will provide a literary-theological prolegomena and method for addressing the issues and then survey the euphemistic manner of biblical obscenities. Students will explore how the gospel is at its core obscene, portrayed as a euphemistic head-and-heel protoevangelium from the outset. Before concluding with theological and practical model for how and when and if to covenant curse, the course will explore the textual history of the Bible, the history of interpretation, and how explicit biblical vulgarity has been softened in biblical manuscripts and printed editions. Alongside Scriptural testimony, we should not practice unwholesome speech. But with Ecclesiastes, we should not be too righteous, as there is a time for all things under the sun.

Join us March 12-14 for several days of study, worship, conversation, and conviviality.

This course will be held at Third Presbyterian Church, located at 617 22nd St S, Birmingham, AL 35233.

Register HERE.

Theopolis Institute admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies or scholarship programs.

*This requirement was added in July 2016. For those who entered the Certificate Program earlier than that date, the oral examination is voluntary.