These lectures provide an overview of the Bible from a literary perspective. Historical and theological issues are addressed as required to understand the thinking of scholars and writers throughout history who were influenced by the biblical stories. The ultimate focus of each lecture is to explore the impact of a specific story of the Bible on the literature and cultural life of Europe and America.

My main interest in listening to these lectures was to see what Professor Potkay had to say about the book of Job. The Great Books KC group is planning to discuss Job later this year and I consider these lectures to be good background material. I still don’t know why bad things happen to good people.

I’ve listened to a number of these lecture series and have found them to be an enjoyable way to learn from the best academic lecturers at the college level without the hassle, cost and stress of actually attending class. The lecture materials include printed lesson outlines and suggested additional reading, and some even have on-line quizzes (that I mostly ignore). It never occurred to me before that I could include lectures on my Goodreads.com book list. But they have ISBN numbers that allows them to be considered as published books. ( )