As mentioned earlier, the LEAD! Bible Study is a tripod, built on three legs:
- theological education
- character formation
- skill development
Having finished writing the lessons for Part A, we now turn out attention to the second trimester (which the class will start in January). This blog post is for the initial outline; as before, the final version will be part of the living syllabus at https://2transform.us/lead/
The general theme of this section is Wisdom, which we define as the ability to live in conformance with God’s character and purposes. The approach we take is focusing on moving from Vice to Virtue. Specifically, the first portion focuses on the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Love, while the second focuses on the Seven Deadly Sins (Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Greed, Sloth).
Central to our initial discussion of Wisdom are the concepts of the Simple, Mocker, and Fool from Dick Hockett’s “Foundations of Wisdom: The Book of Proverbs” (unpublished). These three archetypes represent different failure modes for how we rely on our own humanity rather than fearing God. Most of us tend towards one or the other of these, and it is important to properly diagnose why we fail to act wisely in order to achieve true character growth, i.e., the simple need instruction, mockers must be put in their place, and fools have to hit rock bottom.
For the rest, we will be using Peter Kreeft‘s treatise Back to Virtue (formerly known as For Heaven’s Sake). We may not rigidly follow either of these, but they will provide a conceptual framework for our efforts as well as much useful background material.
For this first second rough draft I focus on identifying the title and a potential Bible chapter for each lesson. See the syllabus for a more precise, fleshed-out version as it develops and is finalized.
- From Humanism to Wisdom: Psalm 107
- From Simplicity to Faith: Romans 5
- From Mockery to Hope: I Corinthians 13
- From Folly to Love: Hebrews 11
- From Pride to Humility: 1 Peter 5
- From Greed to Generosity: 1 Timothy 6
- From Envy to Peace: John 14
- From Anger to Reconciliation: Matthew 18
- From Sloth to Diligence: 2 Timothy 2
- From Lust to Purity: James 4
- From Gluttony to Self-Control: Colossians 2–3
- From Shame to Glory: 1 John 1
Radically Happy 