Telling Bible Stories for Children (and Adults!): A Conversation with Reverend Dr. Rob James

This is episode 13 of season 3 of What Matters Most, featuring the Venerable Rev. Dr. Robert James, Associate Professor, Anglican Formation and Studies at VST.  Apart from his work in Anglican studies, Rob is a biblical scholar and has written and published a book of stories from the Bible designed for storytellers to use with children in children’s homilies or Sunday School or church camps. The first book is on stories from the NT, but there is a second coming on stories from the OT. The illustrator for both is the Reverend Amanda Ruston. The book is called Fifty New Testament Stories for Storytellers. It was terrific to have on the podcast again my good friend Rob James, a Great Friend of the Podcast, a GFOP as they call it on the Men in Blazers podcast.

He is a master storyteller and you might even be able to find some examples of him teaching, singing, and playing his stories on YouTube from his days as a priest in England if you poke around.  Here's a few to get you started! One, Two, Three! I can tell you that his presentation of the story of Jesus teaching how should we pray at the SBL meetings in the Children in the Biblical World session in November 2024 in San Diego had 68 biblical scholars up on their feet doing all of the motions and uttering all of the words as he led us through that story. It was a highlight of the whole conference.

But Rob’s work on telling biblical stories for children allows us to think about what we want children to learn from the Bible, and not just children, but adults. Why are we telling these stories for children? Knowledge of these stories and persons is essential for understanding art, music, culture and their influence on English speaking and other cultures. But there are other more important issues also. Some of it certainly is just to let children know about what the Bible teaches, but is this just an issue of teaching morality? Here’s how you need to behave, or practice your faith, here are good things to do unto others, and here are good things to believe. Certainly, all of these things are worthy. But I wonder if simply letting children know about the people in the Bible and what it teaches goes beyond cultural considerations and even moral considerations and simply allows children to encounter God and the nature of God and to reflect on, think about, and even wrestle with questions of purpose and meaning. This sort of wrestling is not beyond children, they do it naturally and have insights about God that transcend their age and simplicity. Rob’s work lets this happen naturally and gently, allowing the stories to teach the children and to teach us.

Because thinking about Rob’s work in writing a children’s Bible also made me reflect on and work to understand the purpose of the Bible for adults. What do we hope to get from the Bible? What do we expect from it? Whom do we encounter there? Why are we reading the Bible?

What Matters Most is produced by the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark’s College, the Catholic college at UBC. The CCE is a centre at St. Mark’s College that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, members of other religious traditions, and from those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation. Our goal, then, is to talk to a lot of people, to learn from them, to listen to them, and to find out what motivates them, what gives them hope, what gives them peace, and what allows them to go out into the world to love their neighbors.

And now some news on upcoming podcast episodes: 

Coming up next is Dr. Paul Gavrilyuk on the Oxford Handbook of Deification and Orthodox theology, IOTA, and his organization Rebuild Ukraine. After that will be Dr. Tim Pawl, a philosopher, on virtue, and then Dr. Minelle Mahtani of UBC on growing up in Canada with a Muslim and a Hindu parent.

Let us know what you want to discuss next on Pop Culture Matters. Follow us at our Instagram page, @stmarkscce, newly revived, and drop us a line as to what you want to see or hear. Or email us with your suggestions to jmartens@stmarkscollege.ca or cceconferences@stmarkscollege.ca.

Some upcoming events:

We will have over 40 presenters from Asia, Africa, and North America at The Promise of Christian Education: Past, Present and Future, MAY 1-3, 2025, at ST. MARK'S COLLEGE, VANCOUVER, CANADA. You can find all the information on the speakers and where you can register at the CCE website. The link is in the show notes to both the conference website and the registration page.

The cost for the whole conference is minimal and the three keynote speakers are free, but you do need to register for Dr. Margaret MacDonald, Dr. Samuel Rocha, and Reverend Dr. Stan Chu Ilo.

On March 3, 2025, Father Andrew Laguna S.J. will be offering our annual Jesuit Lecture on Immigration and Ignatian Spiritual Discernment.

Past events:

On January 27, 2025, Dr Ray Aldred offered the third annual Laudato Si’ lecture, bringing together Indigenous and Christian thought on how to care for creation, our common home. It is available on You Tube.

Dr. Michael Higgins will have already spoken to us on February 10, 2025 on The Monk and the Pope. This lecture is now on You Tube, and you can find all of the links on the CCE website or on St. Mark’s YouTube channel.

A few thanks are in order. To Martin Strong, to Kevin Eng, and to Fang Fang Chandra, the team who helps me bring this podcast to you, but also makes the CCE run so much more smoothly.

I also want to thank our donors to the Centre, whose generosity enables this work to take place at all: Peter Bull, Angus Reid, and Andy Szocs. We are thankful to their commitment to the life of the academic world and of the work of the Church in the world by funding the work of the CCE. I am also thankful to the Cullen family, Mark and Barbara, for their support of the ongoing work of the CCE through financial donations that allow us to bring speakers to the local and international arenas.

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Thanks again for listening and remember what matters most.   

 Dr. John W. Martens