Fall 2025 Curriculum
Week One
Thursday, October 16
What Is the Bible? Genre and Bringing Ourselves to Scripture
Eric D. Barreto is Weyerhaeuser Associate Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary and an ordained Baptist minister. He is the author of Ethnic Negotiations: The Function of Race and Ethnicity in Acts 16, co-author of Exploring the Bible, and editor of Reading Theologically.
Week Two
Thursday, October 23
Why Should We Study the Bible?
Kathy Bozzuti-Jones, PhD, is associate director for spiritual practices, retreats, and pilgrimage at Trinity Church. Her academic background includes a BA from Smith College; a master’s in theological studies from Boston University; a doctorate in theological ethics from Boston College; and four years of interfaith seminary training at One Spirit Learning Alliance.
Ruth Frey serves as director of community programs and public life at Trinity Church. She previously served as director of programs at Washington National Cathedral and on The Episcopal Church’s General Convention Taskforce on the Theology of Justice Advocacy. Ruth holds a Master of Divinity from Wesley Theological Seminary.
Summerlee Staten is executive director of faith formation and education at Trinity. She has a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and a Master of Sacred Theology from Yale Divinity School, where she focused on biblical studies and faith formation and education in church communities.
Week Three
Thursday, October 30
What Is the Torah?
Rabbi Darren Levine is the founder of Tamid, The Downtown Synagogue and the author of Positive Judaism: For a Life of Well-being and Happiness. He holds rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and has a Doctorate in Ministry from the Post-Graduate Center for Mental Health. He has been serving as a rabbi in New York City for twenty years.
Week Four
Thursday, November 6
What Is the Old Testament?
The Rev. Julie Faith Parker, PhD, is the biblical scholar-in-residence at Marble Collegiate Church and a visiting scholar at Union Theological Seminary. She was awarded the PhD with distinction in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible from Yale University and holds degrees from Hamilton College, Union Theological Seminary, and Yale Divinity School. A professor of biblical studies and an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church, Parker is the author or editor of eight books, including Eve Isn’t Evil: Feminist Readings of the Bible to Upend Our Assumptions.
Week Five
Thursday, November 13
The Development of the New Testament
Professor Matthew Larsen is a historian and archaeologist of early Christianity, and author of Gospels before the Book (Yale University Press); co-author of Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration (University of California Press); and director of The Prison Project, a Carlsberg-funded study creating 3D reconstructions of ancient prisons. On faculty at Yale, Princeton, and now the University of Copenhagen, he is also an Episcopal priest and public scholar whose films and projects bring the ancient world to life for contemporary audiences seeking faith, meaning, and beauty.