Luke/Acts and Geography

It was a wonderful class this past Sunday. We looked at how the NT juxtaposes the letters (Epistles) of Paul with Luke/Acts and how Luke changes the center of Christianity from Greece and Northern Israel to Jerusalem. Luke puts Paul (and Jesus) in Jerusalem at every turn so that the concept of the 'New Israel' is what influences the reader. The text becomes the 'gospel' because the text itself says it's the gospel. This is the nature of all biblical (including OT) literature.

Our next class will be our last one (for now) and we will be studying Escatology (i.e., end-times specifically focussing on Revelations and how the Jews fit into this most interesting schema.

I am looking forward to seeing you all there.

Poseidon Adventure & Religious Imagery Class

As part of the introduction to a class like this, I taught my Poseidon Adventure and Religious Imagery class. There have been several colleagues who have wanted this video and the lesson plan. If you wish, I can send it to you. Just let me know.

Our Second Class

Our second class began our exploration of the development of the NT. We explored how the oral traditions influenced Paul the Apostle and how the first Gospel, Mark, recorded these traditions under the influence of Paul's theology.

We began to discuss the genius of Paul and how his religious sensibilities and fears of sin and eternity influenced his sythesis of Greek beliefs and Jewish background. As well, we discussed the divide between the James (Jerusalem) Church headed under the brother of Jesus into the Pauline Church. To underscore the impact of Paul, we saw how Paul tranformed the view that Jesus was a Jewish preacher/healer, etc., into the Cosmic Lord. This was particularly fascinating and shows its full flowering in the much later Book of John.

There were lots of questions and spirited discussion and, if you like, the invitation is always open to put your thoughts and your questions online on this blog.

Next Class

Our next class will be on November 2 at 10:30. We will discuss two major issues as defined in Chapters 3 and 4, the sources of the NT and the Prisms for Viewing Christianity. Please be sure to read to the end of page 39 of the volume.

Where did the NT come from? What are 'synoptic gospels'? Who was Paul and what's the deal with him, anyway? What's a 'quelle'? And what does the empty tomb tell us about the development of Chrisitanity? These are the kinds of questions we will probe as we delve deeper into the NT.

If you missed the first class, please join us anyway. You are always welcome. However, please be sure you read the volume "Modern Jews Engage the New Testament" by Michael Cook up to page 39 from the very beginning. You will need the background.

For those of you who were in the Poseidon Adventure class, this series of classes is a wonderful follow-up and deeper immersion into the issues and images of the NT. Please join us.

I am looking foward to seeing you in class.

Special Feature

Now that the blog is up and running and an on-going discussion is under way for the duration of the course, I wanted to let you know that I am working on a special arrangement which, if it comes to be, will add another dimension to our course.

Michael Cook, the author of the text we are using, is a good friend of mine and a collegue who teaches at the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. He has agreed to respond to questions or issues that I may not be able to fully answer for you and has agreed to be a part of our group, although in a somewhat tangential manner as I will forward him issues or questions or offers to comment and he will respond. In fact, we are creating a model for other congregations who are using his text and wish a venue to ask questions or make comments more detailed or nuanced than the teacher can answer. Stay tuned!

Michelle's Question

Michele said...
I agree; I thought it was a great first class. It was exciting to me to think of things from a different (and, more accurate) perspective. I never considered what the idealogy behind "NT" implied. It's great that there were so many people signed up for the class. I am looking forward to some passionate discussions in the coming weeks.

October 15, 2008 8:23 PM

Rabbi Cy Stanway said...
Indeed, there is ideology behind every religious document - one could argue behind just about any document. The NT is not alone in this, of course. After all, why did King David end up looking so good in the Bible? Simple, his side won! This alters the perception of the writer and, if a community considers it holy, it becomes holy. This is one of the most disconcerting things about critical study of a text to someone who insists on the inafallibility of the text.

First Class on NT

Welcome to the NT course blog.

What a great first class we had (at least, I felt is was great!)

Our discussion about 'statutory blindness' and the internal logic of the NT to use the OT as a prefiguration, preamble, and precursor to the NT was fascinating. It was interesting to see how it all came to fruition and became an uncontested frame of reference for the early Patristic elders of the church like Justin Martyr, Irenaus and Cyprian.

We will continue our discussions next month.