Class dates: Fridays, November 6, 13, 20, December 4, 11 (5 weeks)

Class time: 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Location: Assumption, Kennedy 119

This course will explore the views of five leading New Testament scholars on the historical Jesus. Robert M. Price is a leading proponent of mythicism, the view that there never was a person called Jesus of Nazareth. John Dominic Crossan is a former Catholic priest who was a leader in the "Third Quest for the Historical Jesus" and co-founder of the controversial Jesus Seminar. Luke Timothy Johnson is a Catholic scholar critically engaged with the Jesus Seminar who defends the traditional view of Jesus as the living, resurrected Lord and Savior proclaimed by the Church. James D. G. Dunn was a British New Testament scholar from the Methodist tradition who emphasized the oral tradition of stories and sayings of Jesus before the written Gospels and the varied symphony of portrayals of Jesus found in the New Testament. Darrell L. Bock is a conservative evangelical scholar and Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, the center of Dispensationalism, the leading theology of the end times for 50,000,000 American evangelical Christians. The chosen book, The Historical Jesus: Five Views , sets forth the views of each of these scholars in his own words and allows the others to challenge his claims.

Required reading: The Historical Jesus: Five Views edited by James K. Beilby and Paul Rhodes Eddy InterVarsity Press ISBN 978-0-8308-3868-4

Instructor: Dr. Rev Gary Shahinian i s an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ, having served various Congregational churches for 32 years. He earned a Ph.D. degree in Philosophy from the Free University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on the problem of evil in the thought of Alfred North Whitehead, the father of Process Philosophy. He also holds Master’s degrees from the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, and Calvin Theological Seminary. He taught philosophy and theology courses at Redeemer College in Ontario, Dordt College in Iowa, and Worcester State University.