The Unmysterious Bible

Robert Oden says theology distorts the great hook.

THE SLENDER blond professor read from the Hebrew Bible to students taking his course in Patterns in Religious Experience. After class a young woman approached him. "Professor Oden, could you tell me what translation you use? I like it, but the words are different from my text." He blushed and apologized. "I'm sorry. I do my own translations as I go along."

Robert A. Oden Jr., chairman of the Department of Religion, is that rara avis, the learned scholar who is a popular teacher. He holds six degrees and reads nine languages, including Moabite and Ugaritic, and when Dartmouth inaugurated in 1979 the Distinguished Teaching Award (chosen by the senior class), he was the first faculty member to win it. His lectures are campus legends. The Course Guide, which is written for students by students, observes: "Professor Oden is a more perfect human being when he is speaking. He presents a vast quantity of material with enthusiasm and humor. The breadth of his knowledge is staggering—in the subject at hand and in apparently all of ancient and modern civilization."

Oden, 41, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard in 1969, winning prizes in history and literature as well as a Marshall Scholarship for graduate study in Great Britain. At Pembroke College, Cambridge, fired with enthusiasm by his tutor, biblical scholar E. W. Nicholson, he earned two degrees in religious studies. He returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and got a master's in theology and a Ph.D. in Near Eastern languages and literature at Harvard. While there he taught expository writing and the Old Testament and was a tutor in Adams House. Since 1975 he has been at Dartmouth, although other institutions have tried to lure him away.

The list of Robert Oden's professional publications fills more than four pages. His latest book, "The Bible Without Theology," published by Harper and Row last spring, is advertised as "a revolutionary new look at the Bible." It has caused a stir because Oden criticizes conventional biblical scholarship and calls for alternatives to tra- ditional theology.

In theology, the bottom line is mystery, but Oden maintains the Bible should be read symbolically. He insists that biblical myths and legends, like most religious literature, are simply part of mankind's efforts to meet its fundamental need—to make sense of the universe. He says that theology's concern with mystery distorts our access to the Bible. Instead of relying on the inexplicable, Oden uses anthropology, comparative religion, literary criticism and history to illuminate biblical text.

To the theologian, for example, the Old Testament question of why Jacob was chosen and Esau rejected will forever be a mystery. Oden, a student of anthropology, finds a clear reason for the choice, based on the traditional kinship links in Judaic culture. The key, he says, is the fact that Jacob gained favored status when he married his mother's brother's daughters, Rachel and Leah.

"I was brought up Lutheran but our son was baptized as an Episcopalian and eight years later our daughter was christened a Unitarian. That gives you an idea of my trend of thought," he said.

In class, Robert Oden makes the Bible immediate. A recent exam question said: "You are John. Defend your Gospel." Or if he wants to impress on students the remoteness of Galilee, he may say, "Just think of it as South Dakota."

South Dakota is his natural habitat. He grew up in Vermillion (pop. 5,000). His father is a businessman, his mother a high school principal, English teacher and book lover. They assumed Robert would follow their footsteps into the University of South Dakota, but when he attended a summer seminar for high school scholars sponsored by the National Science Foundation at the University of Washington, he heard about a place called Harvard. Without ever seeing it, he applied and was accepted.

"My first glimpse of Harvard," he recalled, "filled me with relief and delight. It was the kind of world I'd wanted all along but didn't think existed. I was just crazy about Harvard. I had great friends, great teachers, Adams House—oriented to literature and the arts—and the Red Sox. When I was a junior in 1967, the Sox won the pennant. Oh, to relive that impossible dream!" Although he said he is not really interested in anything that has happened in the last 5,000 years, Oden keeps up on most things, especially sports.

In his senior year, his South Dakota sweetheart Teresa Johnston left Grinnell College in lowa to marry him. A scholar, she eventually graduated summa cum laude from Brandeis. They have two children, Rob, 16, and Kate, 9.

Robert Oden is a perfectionist. His hobbies are hunting and fishing, and he has achieved extraordinary skill at both.

He is an expert in every phase of flyfishing. He invents new flies, writes articles for Fly Fisherman, teaches flycasting at a private club in the Poconos, and spends blissful hours on the Battenkill and White Rivers. A purist, he does not kill the fish but catches and releases them. "The White," he said, "is a perfect stream—big water loaded with big, wise fish." One of his fishing companions remarked, "Even when he's fishing Rob is a scholar. He has taught himself to think like a fish."

In 1975, when Oden came to Dartmouth, the Department of Religion had only 15 to 20 majors. It is now one of the most popular departments on campus. There are between 60 and 100 religion majors every year, and Dartmouth is recognized nationally as a leader in the field.

The Student Course Guide advises that Oden's "down-to-earth explanations of the ideas of people like Saint Paul, Saint Augustine and John Calvin are not to be missed." Holding his Bible at arm's length, he invents his own paraphrase of the third chapter of Romans.

"The Heckler says, 'This is an enormous rotten setup and it stinks. We aren't humanly capable of being right and we're judged on that.' Paul says, 'Oh shut up. God is righteous by definition.' The Heckler, that idiot, speaks up again. 'lf I'm proved wrong and that shows others that God is The Way, haven't I done something good? So shouldn't I do evil, to do more good?' Paul says: 'Anybody who will say that will say anything. Get out of here, you jerk.' "

The bell rings but the students do not leave. They are too eager to discuss St. Paul's handling of the jerk.

A fly fisherman who holds six degreesand knows nine languages, Robert Odenthinks the Bible is better explainedthrough anthropology than mystery.

Nardi Reeder Campion is a frequent contributor. This article was adapted with permission from The Boston Globe.