For the College Classroom
The Wabash Center, the American Academy of Religion (AAR), and the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) have compiled a collection of more that 1800 syllabi in a wide variety of courses in religious and theological studies.The Wabash Center also has other resources, such as
Teaching Tactics, which describes exercises one can use in class to teach about religion.
For High School Classrooms and the General Public
There are many differences between Bible study, which
happens in a religious setting, and study of the Bible, which happens in an
academic one. Bible Odyssey presents the work of scholars in an engaging format
that reveals the historical context behind key people, places, and passages of
the Bible that have influenced our history, literature, popular culture, and
politics.
Teaching the Bible
A newsletter designed to support teachers of secondary school Bible electives. It featured easy to read and reliable resources that you can use in your classroom.
Lesson Plans
forthcoming
Teacher Training
Bible Electives in Public Schools: A Guide is an SBL-produced guide to teaching the Bible in public secondary schools.
Teaching the Bible: Practical Strategies for Classroom Instruction
Mark Roncace and Patrick Gray
Teaching the Bible through Popular Culture and the Arts
Mark Roncace and Patrick Gray
First Freedoms: A Documentary History of First Amendment Rights in America
Charles Haynes, Sam Chaltain, and Susan Glisson
Taking Religion Seriously Across the Curriculum
Warren Nord and Charles Haynes
Classroom Resources
HarperCollins Bible Dictionary
Bible
Babel: Making Sense of the Most Talked About Book of All Time
Kristin Swenson
Legal and Court Cases
Abington Township v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203 (1963)
Doe v. Porter (E. D. Tenn. 2002)
Edwards v. Aguillard, 482 U.S. 578 (1987)
Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97 (1968)
Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971)
Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School
District (M. D. Penn, 2005)
McCollum v. Board of Education, 333 U.S. 203 (1948)
Moreno v. Ector County Independent School District Board
of Trustees Complaint
“District to Settle Bible Suit” by Neela Banerjee, New York Times, March 6, 2008
State of Georgia Attorney General’s 1999 Opinion on the NCBCPS Curriculum
See
Prof. Mark Chancey’s website for more: http://faculty.smu.edu/mchancey/public_schools.htm
Other Guides
American Academy of Religion Curriculum Guidelines for K-12
“Religion in the Public Schools: A Joint Statement of Current Law” (April 1995)
U.S. Department of Education,
“Religious Expression in Public Schools” (1995)
The Bible and Public Schools: A First Amendment Guide
SBL has worked with The Bible Literacy Project and the First Amendment Center to provide a written framework for discussion of the issue of teaching Bible in public schools while adhering to the first amendment to the Constitution.