RELI 220 - Text and Traditions

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

Study of selected oral and written texts and their place in various religious traditions. May be taken more than once for credit when content changes.

Open to all students.

Topic for 2013/14b: Contest and Controversy about the Life of Jesus. There may be no other figure in Western history who has consumed the minds, hearts and imaginations of so many as Jesus - fascinating believers and unbelievers alike. Christian communities have always differed greatly from each other in their theologies of Christ, but today historians attempt to side-step theology and discover the Jesus of first-century Palestine. Can history tell us what the historical Jesus was actually like? Was he an itinerant, charismatic teacher, a healer and miracle-worker, or a social revolutionary? In this course, we will examine the techniques and claims of the modern ‘Quests for the Historical Jesus’ and try to determine what can and can’t be known about him, given the limits of the evidence that survives. Ms. LiDonnici.

Prerequisite(s): one course in Religion.

Two 75-minute periods.