Grace Episcopal Church will host a five-week education and discussion series called “Banned Books of the Bible,” inspired by a push by some national groups to ban certain books from libraries and school curricula.
Rev. John Rumple will lead the series, which begins during the church’s regular service at 10:30 a.m., Sept. 8, at 924 Lake St. It will also be broadcast online. The series is open and free to all.
In addition to the educational portion of the series, in-person discussions will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesdays for five weeks, starting Sept. 11. Members of the congregation will also lead discussions at 1 p.m. on Wednesdays online. Discussion questions, background information and reading are also available online.
According to a Grace Episcopal Church press release, one of the earliest examples of book banning is when Christian authorities decided which books would be included in the Bible. During the series, Rumple will discuss texts that were excluded.
Those texts are called the Books of Enoch, Bel and the Dragon, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Gospel of Thomas and The Acts of Paul and Thecla, according to the release.
Molly Gwinn, a member of the communications committee for Grace Episcopal Church, said at the time that these books were excluded, there were a lot of diverse Christians with diverse beliefs. But the Roman Emperor Constantine called on bishops to create an authoritative belief and text.
“It’s one of the earliest examples of the kind of movement to control what is available to be read,” Gwinn said. “There are movements to kind of create the ‘acceptable’ reading list for young people, for example. This is an early example of that same way of thinking, which is controlling the kind of ideas that people are exposed to.”
Banning books, whether in historical or in modern times, limits the variety of what people are exposed to, Gwinn pointed out. Books are an opportunity for people to share different beliefs and thoughts, she said.
“It was pretty serious for the early Christians because they weren’t just reading it, this is what they were supposed to believe,” she said.
In Oak Park, Gwinn said there’s a “fabulous” education system that creates appropriate curriculum along with a “wonderful” public library. But nationally, banning books has become a topic of conversation among certain groups.
“We would like for people to be curious about [the series],” Gwinn said. “It’s not totally specialized, it has general application.”