Bible and Religion professor Marion Bontrager taught the first Biblical Literature class at Hesston College in 1986. As Bontrager’s brainchild, the class was meant to ensure that students would receive biblical teaching from an Anabaptist perspective as part of their core curriculum.
The impact the class would have on the students who spread its reach to their churches, communities and careers was not part of the immediate vision.
In the 25 years Bib Lit – as it is affectionately called – has existed at Hesston College, more than 5,000 students have been through the class. As those students fulfill the “go everywhere” the college proclaims, they take with them an expanded worldview, a new way of reading the Bible and a broader understanding of their own faith.
“Bib Lit is impacting the church one student at a time,” said Bontrager. “Students go home and share what they learned with their churches.”
Josh Miller, a 1999 graduate, enrolled in Bib Lit his first semester. Miller grew up attending Mennonite and Presbyterian churches and took his faith seriously. The semester of Bib Lit would prove to be instrumental in his call to ministry.
“In Bib Lit the Bible came to life in a new way,” said Miller. “For the first time, I saw how the entire biblical story fit together as a whole and how it continues in the mission of the church.”
Now an Anglican priest in Pittsburgh, Pa., Miller recognizes the impact Bib Lit has on his day-to-day life and ministry.
“When congregants say that a sermon helped them, I know one of the reasons it did so is because of the foundation laid in Bib Lit,” said Miller. “It was there that I learned not to take anything for granted in a passage, and that the church was called to be a group of people who reach out to the world in love, spreading God’s Kingdom in tangible and spiritual ways.”
Bib Lit begins with inductive Bible study, which looks at the Bible in its historical context instead of reading passages from a modern understanding. The course then weaves together everything from Genesis to Revelation, moving into church history and the present, and reveals the Bible as a narrative of God and the people of God, more than a compilation of stories.
The class refers to the narrative as “Heilsgeschichte,” a German word meaning salvation history. As the students move through Heilsgeschichte, they learn to understand different approaches to interpretation and how that affects the way they read the Bible. A major portion of each student’s grade is retelling Heilsgeschichte either through oral presentation or written format.
“The class builds a foundation for critical thinking and analysis when studying the Bible or in any area of life or academics,” said Bontrager.
For sophomore Samantha Brouwer, Moundridge, Kan., Bib Lit was an opportunity for discovery.
“I didn’t grow up going to church,” said Brouwer. “Everything about Bib Lit and the Bible was new to me.”
As she spoke Heilsgeschichte to Bontrager at the end of the semester, Brouwer said she found herself in tears.
“I finally realized that God wants a relationship with people, and I didn’t have that relationship,” she said. “Marion talked with me and helped me realize that it’s not too late to begin to know God. Bib Lit helped me become more in touch with myself and the ways God is calling me.”
Bontrager has team-taught the class with other instructors since its inception, and he says the partnerships have improved the course.
Michele Hershberger, chair of the Bible and Religion department, began teaching the class with Bontrager in 2000. During the 2009-10 year, Hershberger spent her sabbatical teaching Bible courses at LCC International University in Klaipeda, Lithuania, where she introduced Bib Lit to her students.
“About 90 percent were atheist or agnostic, and many were hostile to taking the class” said Hershberger. “I tried to be non-defensive and caring and just let the Bible speak for itself. It worked.”
Bontrager and Hershberger travel to Mennonite churches and conferences across the country presenting condensed versions of the course for church leaders and congregations.
The class is also taught at the Ellsworth (Kan.) Correctional Facility and was recently introduced in churches in Vietnam through former Pastoral Ministries Director Palmer Becker.
Even as Bib Lit stretches beyond the Hesston College campus, its foundation is strengthened with each student who emerges from the class ready to share their exciting new discoveries.
“I love seeing that light-bulb moment when students make a connection they have never made before,” said Hershberger. “Bib Lit brings a sense of common experience and story, both the biblical story that students come to understand in a deeper way and the story of their journey through the class itself. In that way, Bib Lit builds community.”
