MONDAY AFTERNOON STUDY GROUP - Beginning Monday, April 28 – 1:00 pm

Out Takes from Ron’s Class on Religion and Politics

Beginning April 28, The Monday afternoon study group is pleased to welcome Dr. Ronald Stockton as our guest leader this spring! Ron is an award-winning political science professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. In his retirement, Ron continues to host his own podcast, “Stockton After Class”. Here is Ron’s schedule:

* The Maccabees uprising. (First Book of Maccabees in the Apocryphal section of the Bible) This is the uprising that produced the Hannukah celebration.

* Second Maccabees. This is a second take on this uprising, written a century later. It is a mystical reflection on war and a call for non-violent resistance rather than the bloodthirsty uprising in Maccabees I. It is a twin book for Daniel (which is presumably 600 years earlier) and has similar themes. The Book of Revelation used some of its themes.

* Christian Zionism. I have studied this and written on this topic and taught it in my classes. Also, the General Assembly repudiated it twice, once this year. I just reviewed an academic book that discussed how this doctrine is used in the African American community to build up support for the Israeli government.

* How denominations rise and decline. A historic study. Presbyterians enjoy an unenviable position being the denomination that has lost the most members in the past decade. Ouch. This might help our understanding. Or not.

* Gravestone Images. Based on religious themes. (Tentative)