Bringing God’s Word to schools:
Swedish Bible Society launches new project for teachers

By Nils Warmland, Co-ordinator of The Bible and Schools, Swedish Bible Society

UPPSALA, Sweden — The Swedish Bible Society is running a two-year project designed to improve schools’ teaching about the Bible. The project, called The Bible and Schools, started in January and is initially set to run for two years. Its annual budget of approximately 100,000 Euros (US$99,290) includes provision for one dedicated, full-time member of staff at the Bible Society.

It is teachers, not students, who are the first beneficiaries of the project. The main motive for the initiative is that teachers are increasingly seeking teaching aids and study material to help bring the Bible to life for pupils, but such are the pressures on them, in terms of time pressure and pupils’ behaviour, that they are often unable to seek out the resources that would help.

The ultimate goal is to make it easier for students from 12 to 19 to treat the Bible as a partner which has a bearing on the important issues of life, on the students’ morality, on their culture and on their faith. Swedish society in general is showing signs of an increasing interest in existential matters and in the Bible, and the Bible Society wants to encourage publishers to respond to this by producing biblical teaching resources.

Many teachers would welcome a change of attitude on the part of schools. For many years Swedish schools’ Religious Education has been guided by principles such as ‘objectivity’ and ‘neutrality’ which has led some teachers to feel bound to present the beliefs of Christians as simply one faith among others. The Bible and Schools represents an attempt to counteract this western, secular trend.

It will also face problems, however. For one thing, many teachers and students regard the Bible as, at best, an ‘old-fashioned’ textbook. Anders Alberius, General Secretary of the Swedish Bible Society, disagrees.

“School students study a lot of different subjects, all very important,” he says. “The most important subject, though, is ‘the science of life’. As you grow up and decide what kind of person you are and what you want to do, you not only ask ‘How?’ and ‘When?’ you also need to deal with the harder questions of ‘Why?’ and ‘Wherefore?’. For generations in our culture, the Bible has been a tool which helps us to do just that. It does not provide simple answers, but it does contain dramatic stories of individuals and their destinies, showing us how God intervenes. It is also crucial to our understanding of much great art, literature and music, not to mention ethics, spiritual values and the understanding of how our society has been shaped.”

The schools project has chalked up one important achievement already: a web site for schools about the Bible, with free access for teachers. Designed by an advertising company, it contains everything from web links and bibliographies to basic information about the Bible, background information and studies of themes which run through it. The web site address is www.bibeln.se/skolan. (WR 371/22 - 10.02)