FASTLY - Faith & Science Teaching

Knowing About the Resurrection

In Brief

This activity engages students in considering how we know things and form beliefs in multiple ways. It aims to help students see how our way of knowing relates to the resurrection and the question of whether belief in the resurrection is scientific.

Goals

Students understand that different kinds of inquiry and evidence, scientific and non-scientific, are used to arrive at knowledge of different kinds of things.

Students understand the importance of testimony in knowing about unique historical events.

Thinking Ahead

This activity takes an indirect approach to  a common objection in online debates: the question of whether the resurrection is unscientific and in conflict with what we know from modern science. The activity seeks to add a little complexity to the question by introducing two key ideas.

First it asks students to consider the variety of ways we know things, some of which simply fall outside what the scientific method can address. The question of whether we should regard natural science as the best path to truth is a philosophical rather than a scientific question and not one that science itself is well suited to answer.

Second, the activity engages students in considering how we come to trust accounts of very unusual and once-only events. It looks at how our background beliefs and assumptions contribute to whether we find the testimony of others plausible.

This activity does not conclude that science has nothing to do with the resurrection. Science tells us what we have always known, that resurrection is not the kind of thing that normally happens. Rather the activity points out that science only offers one kind of question (could this occur naturally?) alongside other ways of seeking truth. Note that the goal of this activity is not to prove anything regarding the resurrection. It simply suggests some ways of critically examining the view that natural science is the only, or best, frame for thinking about whether people should believe in the resurrection. It points to the complexity of our ways of knowing. Teaching FASTly is about exploring the positive roles of both faith and science.

Preparing the Activity

Needed:

• Presentation slides in Knowing About The Resurrection

• Projection capabilities

Teaching the Activity

Begin by asking the students a series of seemingly random questions:

• When were you born?
• Who was the first king of Israel?
• What did you have for breakfast this morning?
• Where are we right now?
• Is it ever right to steal?
• Does the person next to you have hopes and dreams?

Use the slides in Knowing About The Resurrection. For each slide:

• First present the question and have students answer to a partner.
• Then reveal the examples of how we come to believe things and ask students how they arrived at answers (students may add other possibilities). These suggestions are intended to help discussion, not cover every possibility.
• Then ask students whether the way they arrived at the answer was a reasonable way to arrive at an answer to this kind of question.
• Finally ask whether the answer to this question could be verified using the methods of natural science. Are the other ways of finding things out less trustworthy? Note that in answering this question, students may suggest strategies that are not actually examples of natural scientific method, but sound scientific. Insist that students be reasonably precise in labeling something as natural science.

As a transition, ask students to consider what all of this might have to do with arguments about whether the resurrection could have happened, whether it is compatible with modern science, and whether we can be justified in believing in it. Mention this briefly to orient students to the topic, and then say that you are going to ask them to consider the question from another angle: how do we deal with highly unusual events?

Next narrate to students the following scenarios taken from the next slide, titled Can You Believe? in which they imagine themselves hearing about an unusual event:

• A friend attends a local football game and tells you the next day that they witnessed the kicker, who you know to be a player of very limited ability, kicking a 60-yard field goal.
• A family member calls you to the window. They say that they saw a kind of animal that you know does not live in your country or climate zone walking around in your back yard. By the time you look it is gone.
• You read a social media post from someone who lives in a remote, dry, desert town in Australia, hundreds of miles from the coast. They report that yesterday a large number of living fish suddenly fell from the sky. Note: this is apparently a true story as seen here and here.

For each scenario, ask students to discuss:

1. Would you believe the story? Why or why not?
2. Is the imagined event possible? What could explain it actually happening?
3. If you are doubtful, what might lead you to believe in the story?

Elicit that the decision whether to believe the accounts is going to depend on matters such as whether we can accept a picture of the world in which the event seems possible, whether the narrator seems a balanced and trustworthy person, and whether we can corroborate the story through evidence or the testimony of others.

Ask students how the stories of the resurrection are similar to, or different from, the examples just discussed.

• Similarities may include: It is a highly unusual occurrence; we are dependent on the testimony of others and our inclination to trust them; we can’t do an experiment to prove what happened; our acceptance or doubt might depend on our wider beliefs about how the world works. For example, is there a God who acts in the world? If so, resurrection becomes more possible. Is there a zoo nearby from which animals often escape? The second story becomes more plausible.
• A significant difference is that the three stories above can all be understood without going outside natural processes. For example, perhaps the kicker had a sudden tail wind; the animal could be an escaped exotic pet; the fish may have been picked up by a tornado. The resurrection seems even further outside the norm since it overcomes the normal processes of death and decay.

Finally, point out that science plays an important but limited role among a range of other ways of trying to find out the truth. Most science works by establishing what happens repeatedly when one set of material factors encounter another set of material factors. What are things it will not be good at examining? How can it adequately address unique events? Is the idea of a new creation breaking forth from the old, as Jesus’ resurrected and transfigured body broke forth from death, something that can be addressed using scientific method?

Science can tell us that the resurrection is not normal and that it goes against the way the material world functions. Which of the other ways of forming beliefs that we have been considering might apply to forming beliefs about God’s actions in history? Note that subsequent activities will explore how this relates to the views of early Christians.

To check understanding these distinctions make in how we know truth and their relevance, ask students to briefly summarize in a sentence or two each of the following: the roles of science, testimony, and background beliefs in weighing the plausibility of the resurrection.

The Bible and the Afterlife, Part 1

In Brief

This is the first of a pair of activities focusing on the beliefs of ancient Jews regarding what happens after death. It aims to help students see the context for the New Testament testimony to the resurrection of Jesus.

Goals

Students consider critically the view that prescientific people found it easier to believe in resurrection.

Students learn what view of the afterlife is presented in Old Testament texts.

Thinking Ahead

Critics who say that belief in the resurrection is unscientific often accompany their argument with the idea that ancient, pre-scientific people found it easier to believe in such things than we do. The suggestion is that religion was easier to believe in before science.

This is the first of two activities that look at what seem to have been the actual beliefs of the ancient Israelites about death and the afterlife. Students might assume that belief in resurrection from the dead must have always been the belief of people in Bible times, and that only recently, with the advent of modern science, did easy belief in people bodily living again after death start to wane.

This first activity allows students to discover that those who lived in early Bible times did not tend to think that people naturally came back from the dead, or even hold to a particularly clear or encouraging picture of what happens after death. The activity engages students in the important practice of testing their assumptions against the text.

Preparing the Activity

Needed:

• Bibles

• Image slide in The Bible and the Afterlife Part 1

Teaching the Activity

Begin by eliciting students’ assumptions. Ask them what they think ancient Israelites believed about the afterlife. What do they think were the most frequent concepts of life after death in the Old Testament: heaven? hell? resurrection? the immortality of the soul?

Display a rendering of the cosmos as likely pictured by ancient Israelites (for example, here). Allow time for students to read Job 7:9, Psalm 89:48, and Ecclesiastes 3:18-22 and 9:1-12 before discussing what the Israelite writers seem to believe in these passages and what “Sheol” seems to be like. Where is there evidence of the picture of the world shown in the displayed rendering of the ancient cosmos? Encourage students to look at footnotes or other reference materials to find out about Sheol as a term for the grave or underworld, and a common destiny from which no one returned.

You could also have students look at a word cloud based on the most frequently occurring words in the Old Testament and see if they can find any terms relating to the afterlife. This will illustrate that the afterlife is not a major preoccupation of the Old Testament.

If you have time, allow students to explore the beliefs of neighboring ancient cultures by using further resources such as: an interactive process of preparing for the afterlife as an ancient Egyptian, an article on Mesopotamian beliefs about the afterlife, or an excerpt from the Epic of Gilgamesh, tablet XI which narrates the futility of immortality for humans.

End in discussion, using it to check comprehension:

• Which of Israel’s neighbors did Israel share most in common with regarding the afterlife?
• Why did the Israelites believe that there was at best a shadowy kind of existence in the “grave” after death?
• Is there much sign of a belief in the possibility that some individuals might be resurrected after their death? As an exception, point students to Daniel 12:2, noting that it seems to hope for a future general resurrection, but does not suggest that individuals might cheat death within the normal flow of history. Stress that this verse is unusual.
• Why do we habitually think in terms of “heaven” and “hell”? How are they different from “the grave”?
• What bearing does all of this have on the idea that prescientific people were more likely to believe in resurrection?

The Bible and the Afterlife, Part 2

In Brief

This activity continues Activity 4: The Bible and the Afterlife, Part 1, by focusing on the deuterocanonical writings and the New Testament. It helps students to see the range of Israelite beliefs about the afterlife and resurrection and that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead was not anticipated by any of those beliefs.

Goals

Students critically consider the view that prescientific people found it easier to believe in resurrection.

Students learn what view of the afterlife is presented in deuterocanonical writings.

Thinking Ahead

This activity looks at the deuterocanonical writings and the New Testament in terms of beliefs about resurrection. It challenges students to see that ancient Israelites did not naïvely believe a dead individual would rise from death within history. Therefore easy acceptance of the claim that Jesus was resurrected would not be a reflection of existing pre-modern beliefs, but instead something very unusual. Openness to, and hope for, bodily life after death grew out of concrete historical circumstances of suffering, and remained disputed in Jesus’ day.

Depending on your school’s confessional context, you may wish to make explicit to students that the Apocryphal texts are not viewed by Protestant Christians as inspired Scripture, but are used here to provide a window into intertestamental thought on the resurrection, thought that was developing in a new direction out of the Old Testament and into the New Testament. You may wish to consider how to help students think about how beliefs develop over time within the writings that make up the Bible. For instance we see a gradual unfolding of God’s revelation within Scripture. The activity continues to engage students in the important practice of testing their assumptions against the evidence.

Preparing the Activity

Needed:

• Bibles

Directions:

Display the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical texts on the screen with The Bible and the Afterlife, Part 2, or in handouts The Bible and the Afterlife, Part 2, for students who might not have these texts in their Bibles.

Teaching the Activity

Allow students time to read through two representative texts from the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical texts to illustrate the beliefs of Jews during the intertestamental period. The Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9 and 2 Maccabees 7:7-9 are provided in The Bible and the Afterlife, Part 2 handout or The Bible and the Afterlife, Part 2 slides. Each of these passages shows hope in a bodily resurrection from the dead at some point in the future. Note the context of oppression and suffering. Discuss the questions provided at the end of the passages with students:

• Where in these passages do you see a belief in a resurrection from the dead?
• Who gets resurrected? Individuals at different times or all the righteous together?
• When does it take place? At some point during history or at the end of present history?

Have students note that the hope expressed is for a future resurrection of all the righteous together at the end of present history; there is not an expectation here of any individual rising from the dead in the midst of history. Refer back to Daniel 12:2. See Activity 4: The Bible and the Afterlife, Part 1 for a similar emphasis, pointing out that Daniel is a late Old Testament text. Note also that the hope for resurrection is connected to the idea that justice will eventually be accomplished after oppression and suffering have been experienced even to the point of death. Resurrection is connected to the existence of a cosmic moral order. If death comes and nothing follows it, then injustice can have no final redress.

Next, have students read Jesus’ encounter with the Sadducees in Matthew 12 from their Bible or in The Bible and the Afterlife, Part 2 handout and discuss the questions provided with the text:

• What did the Sadducees believe about the resurrection?
• Why do you think people arrived at different views?
• What was Jesus’ own view, according to this passage?

Note that the Sadducees at the time of Jesus tended to be wealthy and conservative and sought peaceful accommodation with Rome. How might this influence their thoughts about resurrection, as compared to the previous texts?

Conclude with a review of the different positions that have been seen in Old Testament, Apocrypha, and New Testament passages. What do we learn about the range of beliefs in Israel concerning the afterlife and resurrection? Did any of those beliefs offer grounds for expecting the claim that an individual would rise from the dead in the midst of Roman occupation of Israel? Make clear that first century Jews were not looking for that any more than we would; they knew that dead people remained dead until the end of history. The claim that Jesus had risen from the dead was not simply an expression of existing, pre-modern beliefs.

You may wish to draw a connection here back to the question in Activity 3: Knowing About the Resurrection of whether belief in the resurrection is a superstition overcome by modern science. There does not seem to be evidence that ancient people, any more than modern ones, expected dead people to rise after a few days; the claim that Jesus rose from the dead was as radical then as it is now.

If you have used Activity 4: The Bible and the Afterlife, Part 1 together with this activity, you may wish to test understanding by asking students to summarize the key developments in beliefs of the afterlife in the Old Testament and intertestamental periods.

The Testimony of the Apostles

In Brief

This lesson explores the apostles’ reactions to hearing about the resurrection, and how their responses developed into a certainty that hold firm even in the face of persecution. It revisits the question of what basis we can have for knowing about the resurrection, and how the resurrection relates to science.

Goals

Students learn about the argument for the resurrection from the sudden change in, and radical commitment of, the apostles.

Students review the roles of scientific and non-scientific forms of evidence in weighing belief in the resurrection.

Thinking Ahead

One argument often put forth for placing confidence in early Christian accounts of the resurrection is the effect of the described events on the apostles. For a claim that flew in the face of experience, of their own initial doubts, and of orthodox Jewish belief, the apostles became willing to face rejection, persecution, and even death. Similar to the ancient Israelites’ views about the afterlife as explored in the previous lessons, early followers of Jesus were not expecting Jesus to bodily come back to life.

Many people throughout history have been willing to die in conflicts centering on their beliefs, but it is noteworthy that the apostles staked their lives on a brand new claim that went against the expectations of their fellow Jews. They did so not through violence toward others who were obstacles to their own group, but with willingness to be put to death by others rather than give up their testimony. This is not a cast-iron proof that they were right, but it does indicate that something powerful happened after the death of Jesus.

As you teach this activity, keep in mind the two-fold goal of helping students see more clearly the range of responses to the resurrection described in the New Testament, while engaging them in reflection about how much weight to place on the contradictory claims that the resurrection is unscientific or that it is historically compelling.

Preparing the Activity

Needed:

• Bibles

• Copies of Testimony of the Apostles or Testimony of the Apostles

• Access to the internet

Teaching the Activity

Begin with the question: if you were told that someone close to you who died had been raised back to life, would you believe the story? What do you think the range of initial reactions of Jesus’ disciples would have been to hearing this?

Split students up into small groups and assign one of the following passages to each group. Use Bibles, Testimony of the Apostles, or Testimony of the Apostles:

• John 20:24-29, the story of Thomas’ doubt
• Mark 16:1-8, the women fleeing terrified and telling no one
• Matthew 28:16-17, some of the disciples who “still doubted” when they saw Jesus on the mountain in Galilee
• Luke 24:9-12, the disciples thinking that the women’s words about the empty tomb were “nonsense”
• John 20:1-10 for the varied reactions of Mary Magdalene, the “beloved disciple,” and Peter

Ask each group to record the reactions of the people in their passage, and then ask each group in turn to report back to the class. Gather their responses on the board as they do so. Students should eventually see that there were multiple reactions to Jesus’ resurrection.

Then have all students turn to Acts 2:14-41 and read Peter’s sermon on Pentecost. Ask the class what Peter’s main point is in this sermon. What does he choose to emphasize at this key moment? How have the convictions of the apostles developed since the range of responses in the passages just read?

Finally, read Acts 12:1-5 and discuss the following questions with the class. If you have time or would like a homework activity, you could have students perform library or online research for accounts of how all the apostles died.

• At this point what are the apostles willing to go through rather than back down over their conviction that Jesus rose from the dead?
• What could explain such an unyielding commitment to a claim that goes against our consistent experience of how the world works, departs from what Israelite faith had taught about death, generated opposition and violence, and was initially received with uncertainty even by those who proclaimed it?

Finally, review the question in Activity 3: Knowing the Resurrection about different ways that we form and ground beliefs. Explore briefly some of the kinds of investigation that are commonly invoked in debates about the resurrection:

Some argue that a key question about the resurrection is whether it is scientifically possible.

• What does science tell us about the likelihood of dead people coming back to life?
• Did the apostles also believe that dead people stay dead? Would the scientific conclusion have surprised them?
• What scientific investigation could we undertake to find out whether the apostles in fact experienced what they said they did? Can we repeat the event or examine the evidence under controlled conditions? How would an investigation into material causes provide an explanation for a non-material actor? Could science ever provide a completely adequate account of such activity? Does science ever offer a completely exhaustive and adequate account of anything?

In many areas of life, we regularly and effectively lean on methods of testing the trustworthiness of personal testimony and historical events.

• What do the gospels claim about what the apostles experienced following the death of Jesus?
• What were the consequences for the apostles of claiming what they did about the resurrection?
• Does their confidence in the face of persecution offer historical evidence that in fact something very unusual happened to bring about these changes?
• Is there any way around the basic question of whether or not we trust their testimony?

Arguments for the Resurrection

In Brief

This activity allows students to engage in more detail with some of the key arguments advanced in favor of the resurrection and to consider the kinds of knowledge from which they draw.

Goals

Students examine the kinds of argument and evidence put forward by scholars who defend belief in the resurrection.

Students review the roles of scientific and non-scientific forms of evidence in weighing belief in the resurrection.

Thinking Ahead

As students ponder and evaluate additional arguments in favor of the resurrection of Jesus, they will be challenged again to consider the differences between historical arguments, testimony, faith-based knowledge, and scientific knowledge. The John Polkinghorne reading offers the perspective of an eminent scientist who is also a believer. The N. T. Wright reading is from a leading theologian and New Testament historian. The Stephen Davis reading focuses on apologetics.

Note that the goal of the activity is not just for students to understand the argument being offered, but also to think about the basis on which they are made. What kinds of investigation are most appropriate to the matter at hand? Consider also the lessons to be learned as students interact around the arguments presented.

Think about how you can help students to focus not only on the content of the readings, but also on helping each other understand clearly and listen respectfully to one another’s views. Teaching FASTly is not just about the content learned, but also about the virtues exercised and formed as we interact around the content. This activity can provide an opportunity to practice respectful and careful interaction around a matter that can provoke impatient debates.

Preparing the Activity

Needed:

• A copy for each student of Arguments for the Resurrection 1

• A copy for each student of one of the following readings: Arguments for the Resurrection 2, Arguments for the Resurrection 3, or Arguments for the Resurrection 4

Teaching the Activity

Divide students into three groups and assign one of the readings below to each group for homework in preparation for class. Each student should complete Arguments for the Resurrection 1 in preparation for class. Warn students that they will be responsible for presenting a summary of what they have read and that this will be the basis for other students to learn.

Readings:

• N. T. Wright: Can a Scientist Believe in the Resurrection as found in Arguments for the Resurrection 2
• John Polkinghorne: The Faith of a Physicist (extract) as found in Arguments for the Resurrection 3
• Stephen T. Davis: Risen Indeed? (extract) as found in Arguments for the Resurrection 4

In class, after the readings have been completed, have students form groups of three in which they have each read a different essay. A convenient way of doing this is to give a number—1,2,3—to the group that read each essay and then instruct students to form groups containing a number 1, 2, and 3. Remind students that they are serving each other’s learning process. Instruct students to ask for questions and to make sure their explanation has been clear and helpful when they have presented their article. Give time for each member to report to the rest of their new group what they learned from their article.

After there has been time to share the gathered information, have the groups discuss the following questions. As you set up the discussion, remind the students to focus on listening well and interacting respectfully with each other:

• Is it rationally defensible after the development of modern science to believe in the resurrection? 
• Are there other forms of evidence that we regularly rely upon that are relevant to this case?
• What are the most compelling arguments in favor of believing in the resurrection?
• What difference does it make whether or not we believe in the resurrection?

Finally, give some time for each student to individually and silently write a reflective journal on what specifically they have learned from the articles and from listening to the other members of their group. Ask them to name the key arguments they have encountered and reflect on their value. You can use this to check comprehension, but avoid grading students based on their beliefs.