Previous Lectures...


Jesus Seminar on the Road - November 4-5, 2011
Jesus of Nazareth: Savior, Lord, or Wisdom Teacher?
Charles W. Hedrick & Hal Taussig  

Conventional Christianity has emphasized Jesus as Savior and Lord stressing his saving death, his powerful deeds, or his prophetic social program. Recent scholarship, including the Jesus Seminar, has seen Jesus as a teacher of wisdom and part of a larger tradition of wisdom teaching in the ancient Mediterranean world. What difference does this change in perspective make for our understanding of the historical Jesus?  This JSOR explores the ancient and contemporary significance of Jesus as wisdom teacher.

 Hal Taussig is Visiting Professor of New Testament at Union Theological Seminary in New York, where he has taught masters and doctoral level studies since 1998. He also is Professor of Early Christianity at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia and co-pastor at the Chestnut Hill United Methodist Church, a progressive church in Philadelphia. Taussig is co-chair of the national Society of Biblical Literature's Consultation on Greco-Roman Meals, and on the steering committees of the SBL's Seminar on Modern Theories and Ancient Myths of Christian Origins and the Greco-Roman Meals Consultation. His books include Re-imagining Life Together in America (2002), Jesus Before God (1999), Wisdom's Feast (1997), and Re-imagining Christian Origins (1997). He has also contributed to Profiles of Jesus and The Historical Jesus Goes to Church.

Charles Hedrick is Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at Southwest Missouri State University. A retired U.S. Army Reserve Chaplain (Colonel) and Juvenile Probation Officer, Los Angeles County Probation Department; he has served as pastor of churches in Mississippi, California, and New York City. Hedrick was a member of the international team (UNESCO) of scholars who worked for several years in Cairo, Egypt, reconstructing and translating the Nag Hammadi Codices and later excavated at the site of the Nag Hammadi discovery. He is a distinguished author, translator, and teacher in the academic study of religion. He is the author of numerous books and articles.  

The REV. TED PETERS, Ph.D. is a pastor in the ELCA and serves as Professor of Systematic Theology at Pacific Lutheran Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He edits Dialog, A Journal of Theology and co-edits Theology and Science. He is author of GOD—The World’s Future (Fortress 2000) and Playing God? Genetic Determinism and Human Freedom (Routledge 2002), Evolution from Creation to New Creation (Abingdon Press 2003) as well as his most recent book Can You Believe in God and Evolution? A Guide for the Perplexed (Abingdon Press, July 1, 2006). He currently serves on the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (Prop. 71) working group for Scientific and Medical Standards Accountability.

Paul in Two Worlds
A Jew and a Christian Talk 
about the Apostle
Nov. 5-6, 2010 

Stephen J. Patterson & Pamela Eisenbaum

The Apostle Paul was the first Christian theologian but he was not a Christian. He was a Jew. Christians revere (and sometimes revile) him but do they really know this figure who stands in two worlds? Pamela Eisenbaum will examine how placing Paul in his own Jewish world makes a difference in how one understands him. Stephen Patterson will ask how insights like Eisenbaum’s change the way Christians view the apostle, and maybe even their faith.

Stephen Patterson
The Jesus Seminar Takes on Paul
Patterson will introduce the work of the Jesus Seminar on Christian Origins, and some of the big ideas that have changed the way scholars look at Paul.  Can we find something new in this ancient, enigmatic apostle?

WORKSHOPS

Pamela Eisenbaum       
The Paul I Know: A Jewish Evaluation
Eisenbaum will draw from her new book, Paul Was Not a Christian, to show how getting early Judaism right can help us get the apostle right.

Stephen Patterson        
The Paul I Know: A Protestant Lament
Patterson reflects on how Christians, especially Protestant Christians, came to misread Paul so badly.

Eisenbaum/Patterson    
Can We Talk About Paul: Paul in a Pluralistic Age
Eisenbaum and Patterson talk about what a new understanding of Paul might mean for Jews and Christians living in a religiously plural age.

Eisenbaum/Patterson    
Your Turn: Q/A on Paul
Our scholars take your questions and go deeper.

FACULTY

Pamela Eisenbaum is Associate Professor of Biblical Studies and Christian Origins at Iliff School of Theology in Denver.  One of four Jewish New Testament scholars teaching in Christian theological schools, she is pioneering a new Jewish look at Paul.  Her latest book is Paul Was Not a Christian (Harper, 2010).

Stephen Patterson isGeo. H. Atkinson Professor of Religious and Ethical Studies at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, and chair of the Jesus Seminar on Christian Origins.  His latest book is Beyond the Passion: Rethinking the Death and Life of Jesus (Fortress, 2004).


 
RELIGION AND CHANGE, PART II, 
Saturday, July 24, 2010