Class dates:   Fridays, Feb 13, 20, 27, March 6, 13 (5 weeks)

Class time: 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm

Location: Online (via Zoom)

Oscar Cullmann (1902-1999) was a prominent New Testament theologian and historian of early Christianity during the middle of the twentieth century in Europe. This course will explore three salient ideas found in his writings. The first is his monumental challenge of the belief in the immortality of the soul, which he compellingly argues is a pagan notion nowhere found in the Bible. The second is his groundbreaking view of Jesus Christ as the midpoint of history because his life, death, and resurrection are the central event in God's redemptive timeline. The third is his embarrassing thesis that the Roman Christian community was implicated in the deaths of the apostles Paul and Peter as suggested in the Letter of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians, more commonly known as 1 Clement, a book rejected for inclusion in the New Testament, possibly because of this troubling insinuation.

Optional Reading:  

• Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead? The Witness of the New Testament by Oscar Cullmann; Wipf and Stock Publishers, ISBN-10 1608994724, ISBN-13 ‏ 978-1608994724
• Christ and Time: The Primitive Christian Conception of Time and History , 3rd Edition by Oscar Cullmann; Wipf and Stock Publishers ISBN-10 ‏ 9781532657016,ISBN-13 ‏  978-1532657016
• Peter: Disciple, Apostle, Martyr , 2nd Edition by Oscar Cullman, Baylor University Press, ISBN-10 1602584133, ISBN-13 ‏ 978-1602584136

Instructor: Rev. Dr. Gary Shahinian is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ. 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 has a Master of Arts degree in Theological Studies from Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan, concentrated on New Testament and Early Christianity. He taught philosophy and theology courses at Redeemer College in Ontario, Dordt College in Iowa, and Worcester State University.