Thunderous applause concluded Monday night’s faculty lecture in Hyder Auditorium on “imaging God.” Dr. John Jackson, associate professor of Bible and humanities, presented his research and gave the crowd some insight into the book he is working on.
“The church doesn’t have a place for the Old Testament,” Jackson said, beginning his lecture. He spoke of the common impulse to dismiss the Old Testament, which many churches and Christians faced due to a lack of understanding or conflict with their perception of God.
“I hope to give Christians really positive ways to think about the Old Testament on its own,” Jackson said about his book. Through his book with the working title “God’s Passion,” he hopes to “encapsulate” what he is doing in his class, Old Testament Images of God, describing the character of God and his relationship to humankind.
Jackson spoke about the relational nature of God. He suggested that humans are made in the image and likeness of God, not simply in a single characteristic but the totality of our beings. He spoke of God’s desire to have a personal relationship with humans as compared to the relationship of faithfulness between husband and wife and obedience of children to their parents.
Jackson was “pretty excited” about the size of his audience. He qualified it with a laugh, saying several students came only for the Spiritual Formation Program credit but also noted several people from the community also attended. According to Brad Wallace, there was a total of 113 SFP swipes.
“I thought Dr. Jackson did an exemplary job of interpreting the text on every level historically, literarily, and theologically,” said James McDonald, a junior Bible major. He said he was impressed by the presentation and that Jackson had a “contagious passion” for his topic. McDonald, who has taken Jackson’s Old Testament Images of God class, said, “The lecture was a condensed picture of what a discussion in class would look like.”
Dr. Ted Thomas, professor of humanities, history and German, opened the evening by leading everyone to recite Psalm 115. He explained that the faculty lecture series was an opportunity for professors to present their research and demonstrate the work they do outside of the classroom.