The Irish Mail on Sunday

. . . and now even the Bible gets content alert

- By Chris Hastings

A UNIVERSITY named in honour of a catholic saint who was one of the founders of UCD has issued a content warning for the Bible.

Newman University, Birmingham, tells students studying the holy book that the module ‘includes themes of sexual violence and abuse – in images and biblical texts’.

Certain passages are flagged up as especially problemati­c, including a chapter of 2 Samuel in the Old Testament, about David, the King of Israel who had previously slain Goliath. The passage, marked ‘SV’ to denote sexual violence, tells of David’s adulterous affair with Bathsheba and the role he played in the death of her husband Uriah the Hittite.

Former Anglican bishop Michael Nazir-Ali said: ‘Works of history, literature, theology and the classics will sometimes include material about violence, including sexual violence.

‘University should be a time when students are exposed to different aspects of the human condition, albeit with the support of sympatheti­c teaching staff. My issue with warnings is how far do you go before you end up with some form of censorship?’

Those studying the foundation­s of Christian theology are also warned about references to ‘domestic abuse’ in St Augustine’s autobiogra­phical Confession­s, written in about 400AD.

A spokesman for the university, named after 19th century cardinal John Henry Newman, said: ‘The guidance is not a commentary on the Bible, any sacred texts or any Christian thinkers.’

Newman was instrument­al in creating the Catholic University of Ireland, which eventually became University College Dublin. Pope Francis approved his canonisati­on in 2019.

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