Jesus and the GospelsJesus and the Gospels
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Audiobook CD, 2004
Current format, Audiobook CD, 2004, Library edition., No Longer Available.Audiobook CD, 2004
Current format, Audiobook CD, 2004, Library edition., No Longer Available. Offered in 0 more formatsThe figure of Jesus has tantalized both Christians and non-Christians who have sought definitive answers to questions about his words, his acts, and even his very existence. For most of the last 2,000 years, the search for those answers has begun with the Gospels, but the Gospels themselves raise puzzling questions about both Jesus and the religious movement within which these narratives were produced. They also provide sometimes bewilderingly diverse images of Jesus. What accounts for this great diversity in the images of Jesus that have emerged, or in the approaches taken to understanding the story of his death and resurrection? Is it possible to shape a single picture from the various accounts of his life given us by these Gospels? Can we really know who Jesus was? What are the "Gospels" and What Can We Learn? This far-ranging course examines not only the canonical Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John familiar to us from the New Testament, but also the many other apocryphal narratives and literary works that have also contributed to our perceptions of Jesus, Mary, and Christianity. All of these works are encompassed by the word "Gospel." Professor Johnson, who has crafted four other courses for The Teaching Company's religion curriculum, has designed this course to examine the Gospels as literary productions. The lectures seek to encounter not the Jesus behind those compositions, but the Jesus found within them. In these lectures Dr. Johnson considers both what is being said and how it is being said. And because these narratives were born of an oral tradition, he often reads aloud to best convey their full richness and original meanings. You may encounter portraits of Jesus you have never encountered before. An understanding of Jesus developed within a complex world. Professor Johnson introduces you to that world. He reveals a volatile mixture of Mediterranean culture, Greek ideals and realities, Roman governance, and the religion of Israel from which Christianity began. Throughout his lectures, Professor Johnson moves in and out of close analyses of key lines of text, balancing his readings and explanations of the significance of language and terminology with overviews about important issues with which scholars have long grappled. These include both the authorship of the Gospels and what is known as the "synoptic problem," untangling the literary relationship among the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke. Those three works are known collectively as the Synoptic Gospels (from "synopsis"), since they cover essentially the same events in Jesus' life, with the Gospel of John considered to stand apart. You learn how issues of language, material, and sequence have tantalized scholars for years. And you see how "Q," a hypothetical source of written sayings, has been accepted by a majority of today's scholars as satisfying some of their questions, at least for now. Professor Johnson also includes several lectures on Gnosticism, a form of Christianity that arose in the 2nd century, proclaiming the faith as a religion of enlightenment through the saving of knowledge. Dr. Johnson concludes with a look at how Jesus is understood today, not only by Christians as they worship, but also by theologians, historians, and artists. Dr. Johnson points out how many of these latter-day perspectives, including films such as The Passion of the Christ, can rightly be considered as apocrypha in their own right.
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- Chantilly, Va. : Teaching Co., [2004]
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