Books in the Bibliodrama series

Born of thoroughly assimilated Jewish parents, Peter Pitzele journeys back from his various odysseys in alternative faiths to search out the roots of his own birthright. In discovering and claiming just what that means to him, he plants his focus firmly in the biblical book of Genesis. Here he finds the first articulation of those mythic paradigms that will form in time the legacy of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Here are "the fathers' wells," the deep and difficult source texts for our imagination of God.Pitzele's approach to Genesis is personal and pluralistic. He reads not only with a detailed knowledge of the tales, but with the imagination of a psychodramatist. Scripture for him is full of dramatic possibility and psychological truth. The great cast of archetypal figures - Adam, Eve, Cain, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph - are given a fuller dimension in his rendering of their stories. Woven throughout are slices of Pitzele's own personal history, demonstrating the relationship between myth and experience, between the profound images of the Western spiritual tradition and the life of a man who wrestles with his roles as father, husband, son, and brother.In the spirit of conservation, Pitzele seeks to clarify the wells of our spiritual inheritance. His journey of exploration and self-discovery has an immediacy for any of us grappling to find meaning and relevance in the gifts of the past. His purpose is not merely to retell but to re-animate our foundational stories and to bring them to bear on our own lives.This anniversary edition features a new introduction from Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD.

Scripture Windows provides step-by-step exercises that introduce educators, lay people, and men and women of the pulpit to a revolutionary way of involving individuals in the study of sacred stories. In this carefully designed guide to the practice of Bibliodrama, students of all faiths learn how to step into the Biblical text and create midrash as a process of improvisation.Scripture Windows represents a distillation of a process of biblical study and is the official "how to" manual used at the Institute for Contemporary Midrash training seminars. Scripture Windows will appeal to those interested in the application of dramatic methods to the teaching of Bible-as well as anyone seeking fresh approaches to the teaching of Bible to students young and old.