Daniel O My‪!‬

Daniel O My! Lions and Dragons and Bulls is the result of years of Sunday School and Bible study. 

With the encouragement of women that in reality meet more for congregational caretaking and fellowship than for austere academics, I realized that the book of Daniel could be used to both transport people back in time and yet simplify the Old Testament history. The childhood favorite stories of the fiery furnace, the writing on the wall, and the lion’s den can be used to search out the history and living conditions of the Jews, Babylonians, and Persians of Daniel’s time. 

Daniel O My! is not for children. Yes, Daniel prays and has faith in God. That remains the sure foundation. However, the book explores the political machinations of the empires of an era when harems and pagan cults had great influence in those empires. The prerogative of royalty to live differently from commoners explored in the book of Daniel is a story that was told through the King James Version of the Bible by nobility in similar situations 1,500 years later under King James himself. 

Daniel O My! presents a way to move forward in Bible study that can be used to include differing opinions without the polarization into hostile camps that has been too much in evidence in public discourse for too many years. The book models the lessons of most Sunday School groups: it is the relationships and not the absolutes that matter most.