The Historical and the Canonical Christ (NT800; 3 credit hours) School for Ministry, fall 2015

Dr. Wesley A. Hill Office 222 724-266-3838 ext. 254 (school) 412-339-3250 (home) Email: [email protected]

Course Description: With the rise of “” studies, the Christian churches have grappled with how to relate the Jesus of historical-critical study with the Christ of traditional creedal faith. The aim of this course is to familiarize students with some of the most important relevant literature of the so-called “quests” for the historical Jesus and also to equip them to think well about the churches’ proclamation of the gospel in light of that literature. The general set of outcomes Trinity desires for each of our graduates includes the following:

1. The student will recognize and identify the biblical theology evident in the course work. 2. The student will be able to articulate an Anglican understanding of biblical, historical, systematic, and pastoral theology. 3. S.T.M.: The student will demonstrate the ability to carry out research from original sources. 4. S.T.M.: The student will be equipped to successfully pursue further independent research and post-graduate study in his or her chosen theological discipline.

This course is an S.T.M. course that provides an understanding of Scripture and biblical theology, thereby grounding this curriculum as a whole (outcome 1). Such attention to biblical theology is at the heart of a classic Anglican approach to Scripture (outcome 2), and a close study of texts such as we will be attempting is a pre-requisite for pursuing further independent research (Outcomes 3 and 4).

Learning Objectives: During this course, students will perform exegesis of selected portions of the four canonical Gospels. At the same time, students will gain greater familiarity with some of the key claims and arguments of mainstream historical-critical study of the . By the end of the course, and through the assignments, students will have made some of their own integration between exegesis, historical study, and constructive . The students successfully completing this course should have a substantial introductory grasp of the following issues: the historical periods of “historical Jesus” studies; the evaluative criteria used in historical Jesus studies; the critical questions surrounding relation between the Gospels and the historical Jesus; and the theological evaluation of such matters within an orthodox Christian theological framework.

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Required Texts: There are no required textbooks as such. Each week handouts will be provided or put on reserve in the library. For the references to these readings, see below.

Course Requirements: The basic requirement of the class is to attend the lectures and participate in the classroom discussions. Beyond that, there are several assignments:  First, students should come to class prepared to engage in discussion of the assigned readings. Class participation may raise or lower a grade that is on the border between two options (e.g., a B+ may become an A-).  Second, students will take turns leading classroom discussion of these readings. For each day that a student leads, he or she should prepare a handout that guides the rest of the class through the major points of each reading. Completing this rotating task will count for 30% of the student’s final grade.  Third, students will complete a paper, due the first day of class after Reading Week, of roughly 2,500 words that describes the salient differences between the so-called “First” and “New” Quests of the historical Jesus. The paper should also include elements of the student’s own critical evaluation of these Quests. This work is worth 30% of the final course grade.  Fourth and finally, students will submit a final paper of roughly 5,000 words on a topic of their choosing (in consultation with the professor), drawn from the weekly readings. The paper should feature a clear thesis statement, and the body of the paper should attempt a “close reading” of a selected historical/theological text in order to support the thesis stated at the outset. I will explain the expectations for this paper in more detail in the classroom. This paper is worth 40% of the final course grade.

Computer Policy Use of computers or other electronic devices such a mobile phones or tablets is not permitted during class. For information about how note taking on laptops can hinder rather than help your retention of what you hear in the classroom, see Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer, “The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking,” Psychological Science (April 23, 2014). As Ruth Graham summarizes, “Note-taking is a two- part action: creating the notes (‘encoding’) and reviewing them later (‘storage’), both of which confer learning benefits. When the encoding becomes too easy, that first opportunity to learn is wasted, particularly when it comes to absorbing concepts rather than rote facts…. Taking notes by hand, by contrast, forces students to grapple with the material enough to summarize it, since they aren’t physically capable of writing down every word. The constraints enforced by the rudimentary technology of pen and paper force a deeper engagement with the material, the paper concludes” (“Taking Notes? Bring a Pen, Skip the Computer,” Boston Globe [May 25, 2014]).

Course Schedule:

Session 1: Introduction  Discussion of syllabus 3

 Overview lecture: Key terms and concepts

Session 2: Methodologies of the Quest  John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew, 4 vols., ABRL (New York: Doubleday, 1991-2009), 1:167-95  Günther Bornkamm, “The Stilling of the Storm in Matthew,” in Günther Bornkamm, Gerhard Barth, and Heinz J. Held (eds.), Tradition and Interpretation in Matthew (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1963), pp. 52-57  Dale C. Allison, Jr., Constructing Jesus: Memory, Imagination, and History (Grand Rapids: BakerAcademic, 2010), pp. 435-62

Session 3: Ancient Precedents for the Quest  Origen, Commentary on the Gospel according to John (Washington: CUA Press, 1989), 10.2-6  Selections from Augustine, De Consensu Evangelistarum, Eng. trans. in NPNF, first series, vol. 6 (repr. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), pp. 65-236

Session 4: The So-Called “First Quest”  Selections from Hermann Reimarus, “Concerning the Intention of Jesus and His Teaching,” in C. H. Talbert (ed.), Reimarus Fragments (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1970)  G. E. Lessing, “On the Proof of the Spirit and of Power,” in Henry Chadwick (ed.), Lessing’s Theological Writings (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1956), pp. 51-56.  Selections from David Friedrich Strauss, The Life of Jesus Critically Examined (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1972 [1892, 1840].

Session 5: The Apocalyptic Jesus  Selections from Johannes Weiss, Jesus’ Proclamation of the Kingdom of God (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1971).  Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus (New York: Macmillan, 1950), pp. 223-241  Dale C. Allison, Jr., “Jesus and the Victory of Apocalyptic,” in Carey C. Newman (ed.), Jesus and the Restoration of Israel: A Critical Assessment of N. T. Wright’s “Jesus and the Victory of God” (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1999), pp. 126-41

Session 6: The So-Called “New Quest”  Rudolf Bultmann, Jesus and the Word (New York: Scribner’s, 1958 [1926]), pp. 3-15, 27-56  Ernst Käsemann, “The Problem of the Historical Jesus,” in Essays on New Testament Themes (London: SCM, 1964), pp. 15-47

Session 7: The So-Called “Third Quest”  E. P. Sanders, Jesus and Judaism (London: SCM, 1985), pp. 61-76  N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, Christian Origins and the Question of God (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996), pp. 83-124, 339-366

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Session 8: and the  Marcus J. Borg, Conflict, Holiness, and Politics in the Teaching of Jesus (London: T. & T. Clark, 1998), pp. 1-42  Marcus J. Borg, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2015), pp. 46-68  Robert W. Funk, “Introduction,” in The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say? (San Francisco: HarperOne, 1996), pp. 1-38

Session 9: Jesus and the Eyewitnesses?  Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), pp. 1-11, 472-508  Jens Schröter, “The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony? A Critical Examination of Richard Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses,” JSNT 31/2 (2008): 195-209

Session 10: The Political Jesus  Selections from Richard Horsley, Jesus and the Spiral of Violence: Popular Jewish Resistance in Roman Palestine (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987)  , The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1991), pp. 417-426

Session 11: Evaluating the “Three Quests”  James Carleton Paget, “Quests for the Historical Jesus,” in Markus Bockmuehl (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Jesus (Cambridge: CUP, 2001), pp. 138-55  Dale Allison, “Secularizing Jesus,” in Resurrecting Jesus: The Earliest Christian Tradition and Its Interpreters (London: T. & T. Clark/Continuum, 2005), pp. 1-26  F. Bermejo Rubio, “The Fiction of the Three Quests: An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Historiographical Paradigm,” Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 7 (2009): 211-53

Session 12: The Theological Christ and the Fourfold Gospel Witness  Watson, “Veritas Christi: How to Get from the Jesus of History to the Christ of Faith Without Losing One’s Way,” in and Richard B. Hays (eds.), Seeking the Identity of Jesus: A Pilgrimage (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), pp. 96-115  William C. Placher, “How the Gospels Mean,” in Beverly Roberts Gaventa and Richard B. Hays (eds.), Seeking the Identity of Jesus: A Pilgrimage (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), pp. 27-42

Session 13: The Future of the Quest and the Kerygma of the Church  Luke Timothy Johnson, The Real Jesus: The Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus and the Truth of the Traditional Gospels (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996), pp. 141-166  Carl E. Braaten, Who is Jesus? Disputed Questions and Answers (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011), pp. 27-48