Jesus of Nazareth: History and Theology

Catalog description

Jesus of Nazareth is the most historically important and influential person who has ever lived. Over the centuries, billions of people have believed this 1st century Jewish man to be the incarnation (or "enfleshment") of God and to be powerfully alive, present, and active today. Many non-Christians also admire him for his teachings and religious significance. This course will be an extensive study of the life of Jesus of Nazareth as it is given in our best historical sources about his life: the four Gospels in the New Testament. By placing Jesus in the historical setting of 1st century Palestinian Jewish life under Roman rule, we seek to grasp what the words, deeds, and events of his earthly life would have meant in his own day. In doing so, we will also attend to the ways in which the four evangelists receive and interpret the figure of Jesus in their Gospels. Our goal will be to arrive at a better understanding of this most historically important individual, whom Christians believe to be God become human.