MAGGIE VALLEY — At St. Margaret of Scotland, a small parish tucked away in rural western North Carolina, Catholics are taking part in faith formation classes that take them back to the earliest roots of their faith.
Classes at the parish of about 120 households are led by Dominican Father Becket Soule and offer a range of study that covers Scripture, basic theological questions and even the ancient language of the Old Testament – Biblical Hebrew – a subject not found on the faith formation schedule at many parishes.
The classes emerged from a very real desire for deeper formation that Father Soule noticed when he came to St. Margaret in 2020.
“People were looking for a Christian education opportunity, and initially someone said we could get DVDs or something, but you can’t actually interact that way,” Father Soule said. “The classes are really a way of going deeper into the faith and to tap the intellectual resources we have right here.”
On Wednesday mornings, Father Soule leads a Scripture study which goes through the Bible one chapter at a time. The class started about four years ago, initially reading the Book of Revelation. They started with the first chapter of Genesis in 2022 and have made their way to the 11th chapter of Leviticus, which deals with the ritual, legal and moral practices followed by the ancient Israelites.
“I suspect we may be one of the only Catholic parishes to read through Leviticus line by line,” Father Soule said.
The approach offers students a chance to learn more about the Old Testament and how all of Scripture works together.
“Many people only are exposed to the Bible through the Sunday readings, which gives you bite-size pieces each week,” Father Soule said. “You don’t often know what happened before or what happened afterward. This is a way of looking at all of Scripture in a more comprehensive fashion.”
Out of the weekly Bible study emerged the Tuesday afternoon Aquinas Circle, which goes through St. Thomas Aquinas’ best-known work, the Summa Theologica, focusing on one theological question a week. Most recently the group has been focusing on the Summa’s questions about the nature of fear and how to handle it through faith.
And then there’s the Biblical Hebrew class, which started weekly on Thursdays earlier this year and came about because some expressed an interest in reading the Old Testament in its original language. Father Soule studied Hebrew for six years in graduate school and had offered classes in it before, so he readily agreed to help students learn the ancient language.
Students use the Cambridge Biblical Hebrew workbook as a text because it allows them to work on exercises at home. Their main focus has been learning the Hebrew alphabet and vocabulary. By February he hopes to lead students through reading actual books of the Old Testament in their original Hebrew.
“Reading the Scriptures in the original language can really help to break the texts open, to focus on why a particular word was used, where else does it occur and what it really means,” Father Soule said. “Once you get past the alphabet it’s really amazing to look at the language in its original form.”
The classes include people of many backgrounds. Not all of the students are Catholic, and they range in age from people in their 20s to retirees. People from other Christian denominations have joined the classes, and one of the Biblical Hebrew students is Jewish. Father Soule said the variety of faith backgrounds makes for good discussions and helps all of the students learn about different perspectives.
“There is a mutual respect for each other, and a wide variety of backgrounds that really enrich each other,” he said.
Those interested in the classes offered at St. Margaret of Scotland can contact Father Soule at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
— Christina Lee Knauss