This fall our Solid Grounds Bible Study will be reading The Letter of James. James is the first of what are known in the New Testament as The Catholic Letters--one of the seven letters, along with The Letter to the Hebrews, that are not attributed to the Apostle Paul.
If one were to summarize The Letter of James, it would best be said that it is a reminder that, as Christians, everything we think, say, and do must reflect our faith. People should know that we are Christians without our ever having to tell them!
Our study of James will run from September 8-November 10. (See the entire class schedule in the column on the right.) We will meet every week at St. Patrick Catholic Church in the Marian Lounge at 9:00am. To register for our class, fill out the Registration Form and drop it off at the church office or information desk. Prepayment of the $30 class fee to cover the cost of the textbooks must be made with registration. The registration deadline is August 25. Information is also available at the Solid Grounds page on St. Patrick's website.
In addition to the two textbooks covered by the class fee, all participants are asked to purchase a copy of the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible. This is the translation that we use in our study. The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible is available as the complete New Testament as well as its individual books. Bring proof of registration to St. Patrick Book & Gift, and you'll receive 15% off the regular retail price of the Ignatius Bible used in our study. You may also wish to purchase a journal or notebook to record the answers to the questions posed in our lessons or record any additional notes or questions you may wish to have addressed during our meetings.
The books included in the registration fee are The Early Christian Letters and James: A Bible Study Guide both by acclaimed New Testament scholar, N.T Wright. Dr. Wright is often hailed as a modern-day C.S. Lewis due to his ability to write about deeply theological and philosophical topics and make them easily accessible to everyone. His appeal? Wright is a storyteller and teacher at heart.
The Early Christian Letters includes commentary on The Letter of James, and James: A Bible Study Guide divides the letter into nine weekly lessons providing questions for discussion and prayer to reflect upon the scripture passage covered.Please join us this fall for our study of The Letter of James. Register, and we will see you on September 8. Our first meeting will give us an opportunity to get to know one another and learn more about our plans for the coming weeks. We have made it a tradition of reading a book over our summer vacation and discussing that book at the first meeting. This year, we are each reading a book of our own choice. At that first meeting we will each take a few moments to share our impressions of the book with the rest of the group. If you do not have time to read a book prior to the September 8 meeting, please consider sharing one of your favorite books about our faith. The idea is that we get a chance to learn more about the faith, and we get to go home from our first meeting with a list of great book suggestions to keep us reading for the weeks and months ahead!
