Why not teach something that has influenced society, morality and literature even more than Shakespeare.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of religion, I just think it's an interesting text to examine.
I looked at parts of it when studying ancient Egypt at uni and found deconstructing it to useful points quite rewarding.
( monkeyboyalpha jumping on the bandwagon since, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 10:54, 1 reply)

I can't see it fitting in to the Eng Lit curriculum,
and I'm not convinced that you should be devoting significant chunks of History time to it, either.
I studied Latin at GCSE, which is another foundation of the modern world, but I can't see that it should be compulsory. The Bible could be worked into Classical Civilisation, but that's very much an optional subject, that's generally avoided, and not offered in many schools.

The more I think about this, the more convinced I am that Christianity's influence of modern, British society, is best conveyed through Religious Studies, and probably elements of the Citizenship course.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 11:05, closed)

OK, I can't remember much of my Religious studies, but I'm pretty sure they weren't very critical of the Christianity/the bible.
My hope in the teaching of the bible in other aspects of the curriculum is that the bible/Christianity could be the subject of criticism, in terms of literary criticism, the dubious nature of it's value as a historical document, a criticism of it's inconsistent morality.
Also, a knowledge of the stories and symbolism in the bible can be rewarding when reading other literature.
I'm not suggesting a bible studies GCSE, just that the text itself is not as widely read as it should be. Maybe the same could be said of the Koran and other religious texts as well.
( monkeyboyalpha jumping on the bandwagon since, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 11:13, closed)

I can certainly see your point,
and would agree that some knowledge of the Bbile would help put things in context, which would be a good thing.
I'm not up to speed on the latest RS curriculum, but I'd certainly hope it was more informative than what I was subjected to (mostly copying pictures out of an illustrated book of Bible stories, if memory serves).
That said, I think that the Bible, like many other works of literature, is best discovered for yourself (few, if any, works deserve a defacto place on the curriculum (yes, Shakespear, I'm looking at you)), and I'd like to think that, if an allusion to the Bibe was present in a work of literature, or if Christian thinking was influential on a particular period of history, the teacher of that subject would make his/her pupils aware of this.

Gosh, what a grown up discussion, this is - have I stumbled onto the wrong website?
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 11:25, closed)

Your bum smells of sailors.
Nyerr nyerr na-nyerr nyerr!
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 14:41, closed)