Adult Education at St. John’s in 2008
Sunday Mornings, January through April
9 – 9:50 a.m., Breakfast Served
Walking to the Cross – And Beyond
The Quest of the Historical Jesus (Schweitzer’s famous title): Why Historical Understanding is so Important to Christians – a look at the key people, events, movements and ideas leading up to and following the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Why the thoroughly Jewish Jesus made more sense to Gentiles than to Jews in the first century and beyond.
February 10: Background to the 1st Century: The dramatic Maccabean victory nearly 200 years before Christ sets the stage for a first century boiling over with militant, messianic, apocalyptic and eschatological hopes and fears and a deeply fractured Judaism;
February 17: A Jew is not a Jew: Even Herod the Great (ruthless to Jews) considered himself Jewish in the first century: a look at the varieties of Jews: Hellenized and Diaspora Jews, zealots, separatists (Essenes), disenfranchised, and the leading parties of Pharisees and Sadducees and others.
February 24: Why Jesus Fit None of the Prevailing Messianic Expectations: Jesus’ reinterpretation of major Jewish institutions: Baptism, Temple, Passover and Torah.
March 2: Why the Jesus Movement Took Hold among Gentiles: How Paul’s Understanding and Dissemination of the Gospel made the Jewish Jesus a universal hope for salvation then and today.
March 9: Why the Quest of the Historical Jesus is being fought as fervently Today as Ever: A mountain of literature over the passed twenty years testifies to an undying controversy.
LENTEN SERIES BOOKS
These two books are recommended texts for The Lenten Series, five Sundays in Lent, February 10 – March 9, 2008,
by Judd Anderson.
Background reading for weeks 1 – 3 of The Lenten Series:
The Jews, A Story of a People. Howard Fast.
Although this is not a new text (1968), Fast tells the story of the Jews based on a depth of historical, archeological, sociological and religious research. His prose is smooth, fluid and readable. He will shock you with his honesty about ancient Israelite resistance to monotheism, the incessant tribal feuds, the violent factions among Jewish religious groups by the time of Jesus and the conflicting expectations and beliefs regarding the Messiah at the time of Jesus. A very provocative look at Judaism by a Jew. (Harper San Francisco ISBN 1-59687-249-7, paper) Available used at the following online stores. www.abebooks.com, www.half.com, www.amazon.com for approximately $2.70.
Background reading for weeks 3 – 5 of The Lenten Series:
The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World is a Few Centuries. Rodney Stark (1997). Stark writes history that is both highly documented and very readable. Trained as a sociologist, Stark uses his knowledge of people, urban development, history and geography to supplement all known documents about the early centuries of the Christian movement to provide an inspiring look into why Christianity took off so dramatically within a few hundred years. I was inspired by (and reminded again of) the superiority of the Christian message of equality among all people (women and slaves in particular), grace and forgiveness in a cruel world, an ethic of compassion and care unseen in ancient times, a conviction among its early adherents that transcended all pagan, Gnostic or religious movements of the time and why these tenants held such appeal 2,000 years ago and today. (i-books/Publishers Group West ISBN 0-06-067701-5, paper) Available used at www.a1books.com, approx. $9.