The Other Side

From Sunday School days on we are often asked to take sides in order to shape our moral universe: we learn about right and wrong, good and evil, saints and sinners, villains and heroes. Especially the Old Testament offers a wide range of easily identifiable and categorizable characters: Cain and Lamech and Pharaoh and Goliath belong in one box; Abel, David, and Job in another. The world view which emerges after such simplified reading is clear, fixed, almost dogmatic. But life isn't that simple at all. We know that the story of our own lives requires more than one version; that looking at any given issue from different angles is not only a matter of necessity but also of justice. This book should be used as a study guide to those stories which are so well known that they rarely yield a new insight, let alone a deeper, Christian perspective. Young people, men, women in their various church groupings will look at the letters, the corresponding scriptures, and begin the conversation about the Good News hiding in Old Stories.