This course will explore the theological content found in the Psalms and also how the Psalms have functioned as the heart of the Jewish and Christian devotional life over the centuries.
- Instructor: George Gonzalez
This course will explore biblical women as dynamic role models of faith, courage, and wisdom for contemporary women and men in living fully and spiritually
- Instructor: Bridget Mary Meehan
This course will give students grounding in the context, content and critical issues related to understanding the Gospels
- Instructor: Michael Conley
This course presents a compelling study of what Jesus actually said and what he actually did based on the findings of the Jesus Seminar, which was organized in 1985 and led by Walter Funk. It was determined by this group of more than 200 professionally trained specialists that, out of the 1,500 sayings attributed to Jesus in the Gospels, just 18% were authentic and then in 1991, after examining 176 events attributed to Jesus in the Gospels, only 16% were determined to have a good chance of actually occurring. The implications of this study are profound and prompt us to change the way the gospels are read.
- Teacher: Jean Conley
This course is an invitation to Christians and non-Christians to challenge their inherited notions of how and why Jesus is to be thought of as divine. The text concludes with implications about Jesus for ministry, liturgy, and theology.
- Instructor: Jean Conley
This course presents an overview of what Jesus of Nazareth said and did about gender,power and money. This course focuses on rediscovering the revolutionary Jesus as a source of empowerment for all especially women and all who are on the margins of institutional religion and in society.
- Instructor: Bridget Mary Meehan
This course presents a compelling view of the way the Gospels of the New Testament were written , when they were written and why they were written, based on the most recent and reliable scholarly research on the Gospels. Using the Gospel of Matthew as a guide, Spong explores the Bible’s literary and liturgical roots—its grounding in Jewish culture, symbols, icons, and storytelling tradition—to explain how the events of Jesus’ life would have been understood by both the Jewish authors of the various gospels and by the Jewish audiences for which they were originally written.
The purpose of this course is to provide new perspectives on the legacy of Jesus in the earliest Christ communities that include a fresh mixture of the traditional New Testament texts alongside a treasure chest of ten new books that were lost for centuries and now have been discovered and translated: the Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Truth, the Prayer of the Apostle, the Acts of Paul and Thecla, the Prayer of Thanksgiving, the Odes of Solomon, the Letter of Peter to Philip, the Secret Revelation of John, and The Thunder: Perfect Mind. A New, New Testament, which has been assembled by nineteen spiritual leaders and edited by prominent scholar Hal Taussig, makes contemporary scholarship readily available, readable and relevant to the public. It reveals a fuller portrait of the life, teachings, and ministry of Jesus that will broaden intellectual
understanding and spiritual growth.