Literature and influence of the Bible taught at URI

By Kevin Shalvey

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR RB Reaves Jr. talks a lot about influences. It seems to come up no matter what the topic is. In a recent class about cinema directors, he talked about Robert Altman not being influenced by the media, about how the Coen brothers used old movies as a springboard for O Brother Where Art Thou and The Big Lebowski, and he wondered why it is that they would remake The Lady Killers.

"You wonder why they would do that," he said, "if they didn't have anything to add."

Influences are also one of the main themes of Reaves' English 368 class -- The Bible as Literature -- at the University of Rhode Island. The idea that the Bible has influenced most literature that came after it is one that Yale and New York University Professor Harold Bloom came up with, and it is an idea with which Reaves agrees.

"I'm certainly interested in earlier literature," he says. "And language and allusions have trickled down into almost all of English literature. Shakespearean text is steeped in it. English literature is very rich in biblical echoes."

The Bible and Shakespeare are the foundations of almost all literature, he says, so they are important. It is for this reason, Reaves says, that the Bible class is not religious.

FOR MORE than 15 years, Reaves has taught the Bible class at URI. It is all about the literature, so students dissect the book through characters and stories told.

"You can look at the Bible from at least three different angles," Reaves says. "You can look at it as history; you can look at it as a version of ancient literature; or you can look at it as a religious text that has influenced at least three of the world's major religions. We focus on the ancient literature."

The class studies the Bible for similarities to literature of the time it was written and as a series of stories that were written over many centuries. The chronology of when each book was written is a puzzle also, and there are many questions as to how it was written, Reaves says.

"Some of the early texts were written later than ones after them," he says, "and some of the later texts were written earlier than the ones before them."

In teaching the class, Reaves tries not to bring up too many theological or religious questions, "except maybe the major ones," he says. "It's just not a subject that I am competent to teach."

The only major religious theme that is discussed is that Jerusalem is a central place in the universe, Reaves says, which is a strong theme inside the text. The focus instead is on the Old Testament and its three major styles. These are the "law, the prophets and the writings - which are mostly poems and stories," Reaves says.

Because Reaves does not bring up religious beliefs in class, he usually does not know the denomination, if any, of his students.

"I think many students who take [the class] are religious and they want to get more information about their religion," Reaves says. There are, though, probably many reasons why students choose the class, and Reaves usually does not discuss with students whether they are spiritual.

"I don't really share this with students, I consider it a private matter," he says, and then pauses. With a laugh he continues, "I'm not trying to convert anyone to Judaism or Christianity or anything like that."

THE CLASS is possible because it is a secular elective, and not a required religious course. In 1963, in the majority decision of The School District of Abington Township, Penn. v Schempp, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark made it clear that any government establishment cannot require anything but the secular study or reading of the Bible. He wrote it in his decision representing eight of the nine judges.

"It certainly may be said that the Bible is worthy of study for its literary and historic qualities," he wrote. "Nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be affected consistently with the First Amendment."

He continued, "In the relationship between man and religion, the state is firmly committed to a position of neutrality."

So, after this decision it was legal for public schools to teach about the Bible, but only as a literary text, not as factual history or as prayer. In his dissenting opinion, Justice Potter Stewart rejected the idea that the court should decide what is best for each state. He argued that two clauses in the First Amendment did not allow the court to make a concrete decision on the issue.

The amendment reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . . ." Stewart also wrote that separation of church and state cannot be perfectly enforced because "a different standard has been applied to public school property, because of the coercive effect which the use by religious sects of a compulsory school system would necessarily have upon the children involved."

"It is not without irony that a constitutional provision evidently designed to leave the States free to go their own way should now have become a restriction upon their autonomy," he wrote.

WITHOUT ANY religious intentions, senior Trianna Testoni took Reaves' class. She majors in English at URI and said she decided that the class would be interesting, even though she did not have a strong religion-based background.

"I took it just because I wanted to learn about the Bible," she says. "I didn't grow up and go to church; I just wanted to learn about the book. It's the most popular, widely read book in the world, and that's why I did it."

Testoni says she was impressed with the class' lack of religious conversation and Reaves' ability to stay on topic.

"He didn't teach it like a religion class. There were no feelings involved," she says. "It was just an analysis. It wasn't about whether it was true or about whether this book was the authority; it was about how the Bible was put together."

The class did not even venture an opinion as to the religious truth of the material, Testoni says. It focused on who the authors were, which part of the Bible each wrote and their reasons for writing it. There were also lengthy discussions and study of the psalm format as a type of poetry, and each student had to dissect one psalm for a term paper.

"I thought the way that he did it was really, really good," she says. "Now I know the story, all the characters, and about the authorship. That's what it teaches, and everyone can make their own decisions. I'm sure that many people could have walked out of there with their beliefs confirmed, but others didn't."

Junior English major Carlton Bradshaw says he is religious and goes to church each week. He is taking the class this semester (spring 2005), he said, but his decision to do so did not have anything to do with his faith. He just wanted to learn more about the writings.

He is now reading "pretty much all Old Testament, and most faith is based on the New Testament," he says, and the class is improving his religious background.

Another senior, Jesse Whitsitt-Lynch, also took the class to study the literature.

"I liked it, I enjoyed it. It was a different look at the text than I was used to," he says. At the time that he took it - three semesters ago - he was studying the Jewish and Christian religions in his spare time. "Approaching it simply as literary output was a really cool idea that I hadn't even thought of."

Whittsitt-Lynch, a political science major, wrote his term paper for the class about God, he says. It was not about whether God was all-powerful, though; it was about the character's evolution throughout the books of the Bible. He says he was impressed with Reaves' teaching.

"He's solid," he says, explaining that Reaves is interested in teaching his students about influences not influencing their religious beliefs. "Particularly, he was good at informing classes about the people and culture in the area where the Bible was written. Good stuff," Whittsitt-Lynch adds.

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Kevin Shalvey, a junior at URI, is majoring in Journalism. He is a managing editor at The Good Five Cent Cigar student newspaper and has free-lanced for the The Warwick Beacon, The Cranston Herald and The Wood River Press.