“Speaking Truthfully about the Bible in Undergrad Religion Courses” will be Dr. Alex Sider’s topic for a Bluffton University colloquium at 4 p.m. Friday, Sept. 26, in Centennial Hall’s Stutzman Lecture Hall. The talk is free and open to the public.

Sider, an associate professor of religion and chair of Bluffton’s history and religion department, will focus on creating historical consciousness about the Bible with undergraduate students. He will present a set of challenges that Bible professors face, address the history of the problem, and discuss the moral and intellectual purpose of the creation of historical consciousness in a liberal arts education. 

Sider is Bluffton’s Harry and Jean Yoder Scholar in Bible and Religion. That five-year appointment—made in 2012—provides him with annual funds to support scholarly research and writing in areas related to Anabaptist-Mennonite life and thought. A member of Bluffton’s religion faculty since 2006, he received his doctorate in theology and ethics with minors in church history and political theory from Duke University.