Little Rock Bible Study, Anyone?

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Has anyone had any experience with the “Little Rock Bible Study” program. Our faith group is looking for a good, structured, Catholic Bible study program and one of our members had heard of this program, but none of us have any first hand experience. Any other good, well structured programs out there that we might look into? Your help is most appreciated…
 
I have personal experience with the program. It is good for the basics and as an introduction to the Scriptures. It requires private study during the week and at the weekly meeting there is discussion time plus a round up video.

Some things to note:
  1. the commentaries that are used tend to follow the historical-critical method and there are some things where I personally disagree with the commentator. To get around this I tend to use a commentary from another source to get a bit of balance.
  2. There are personal questions that you might feel that you do not want to answer. My normal response is something like: “Answers will vary”. This is the answer that you will find in the answer book for such questions 🙂
3, If you want something beyond the basic level then this is not the right program for you.

I hope that helps.

Maggie
 
To expand on previous comments, the LRSS is kind of fast too, requiring that you read a couple chapters of scripture a week. The 90-minute standard meeting is highly structured by the study questions. You might find that stifling after a while, as you have scant time for an original thought or question.
 
we just had an orientation session on LRBS for DREs and others doing adult education. I have participated in former parishes and my observations are the same as those given above. The course material and videos we saw seem orthodox enough but I was concerned about the commentaries and other resource materials being suggested, also that at least in this workshop they used the NRSV. For a beginning study for parish adult education, where the teacher is knowledgeable enough to refer to orthodox commentaries to settle questions, this would be a good investment, but there are probably better programs out there if the parish is investing a lot of money.
 
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cestusdei:
Try the Ignatius Bible Study.
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I have some of the books for the Ignatius Bible Study and I think that perhaps some people need something a little more basic first, then to move on to this excellent material :). The Little Rock program is a beginner’s program who need basic materials. On the other hand I do recommend where necessary that the Ignatius Bible Study commentary is more meaningful than some of the commentaries in Little Rock.

I still think the best part of the program is the wrap up lectures. However you have to be prepared for some rather weird things such as a woman wearing the most awful red glasses that I have ever seen. With my sense of humour, well I could not help laughing … and everyone around me saw the humour as well… For the most part the video material is orthodox and it is informative, but one needs to be aware that there could be things that might not be so good.

I have honestly enjoyed doing the Little Rock Scripture study program.

Maggie
 
Thank you all for your insite. I shall explore the other choices given and at least be able to give some feedback to this topic.
 
Jimmy Akin of Catholic Answers doesn’t think much of the Little Rock Bible Study programme. If you go to Catholic Answers or Jimmy’s website, Nazareth Resources, you might be able to locate the reasons for his comments.
 
My former parish uses Little Rock for its Scripture studies. In the beginning, I found them helpful since they same with a video for each week’s session.

However, saying that, I find that the questions sometimes tended to drift towards the personal instead of educational in nature. Being an extremely private person, I found the uncomfortable and often did not answer them.

I have all the Ignatius Bible Study books except for Corinthians. This would be a good one for a Scripture study. The only drawbacks are that they not structured into weekly sections and there is no video or audio commentaties for them.

Also, they need to start doing some Old Testament books (especially the Wisdom and Prophets).

PF
 
The reason I’m here is that I Googled “Little Rock Bible Study,” looking for some critiques, and this was the first site that turned up. I’ve had three months of Little Rock on Luke and suspect the program is something of a faith killer. There is the basic contention that books of the Bible are not always factual but certain stories are given to us because they contain truths we need to know anyway. Discrepancies in the Gospels are cases in point. When Luke differs with secular understanding, for example, he’s always in the wrong, but bless us, there’s still some truth there even though he’s what? A liar? A fool? A propagandist who plays fast and loose with the facts?
 
Jeff_Andrus said:
The reason I’m here is that I Googled “Little Rock Bible Study,” looking for some critiques, and this was the first site that turned up. I’ve had three months of Little Rock on Luke and suspect the program is something of a faith killer. There is the basic contention that books of the Bible are not always factual but certain stories are given to us because they contain truths we need to know anyway. Discrepancies in the Gospels are cases in point. When Luke differs with secular understanding, for example, he’s always in the wrong, but bless us, there’s still some truth there even though he’s what? A liar? A fool? A propagandist who plays fast and loose with the facts?
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I have the same impression. Time and time again the Little Rock Scripture Study commentary says, in essence, “This part of the Bible probably didn’t really happen, or didn’t happen the way it’s written in the Bible. Israel made up the story, or borrowed it. We’re not saying it doesn’t contain “spiritual” truth, though.”

If you believe this stuff, you have a whole new perspective on the Bible, and just might begin lobbying for no longer calling it the “The Word of God,” but instead calling it “The Words of Israelites.”
 
JackPaul said:
Has anyone had any experience with the “Little Rock Bible Study” program. Our faith group is looking for a good, structured, Catholic Bible study program and one of our members had heard of this program, but none of us have any first hand experience. Any other good, well structured programs out there that we might look into? Your help is most appreciated…
Click to expand...
I did it last year I was a facilitator. In my opinion it is just not worth the cost. The writer of the commentary stphen binz (think thats his name) is just not all that good. he puts everything into historical and leaves no room for the holy spirit. it would be better to get a copy of the ccc and use that to settle any theological questions and just read the bible. let the spirit teach the meaning on a personal level (i.e. david vs goliath shows I can over come any obstacal with god’s help). I am in general not a fan of little rock which is why I’m not going back this year. the ccc is the best to use for bible study since it gives all the theological anwsers. I find the historical method is useless in deepening faith. knowing how people farmed or dressed back then does nothing to deepen my understanding or conection with god.
 
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