Historical Jesus Stanford Continuing Studies Program
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- Religion & Spirituality
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Who was the historical Jesus of Nazareth? What did he actually say and do, as contrasted with what early Christians (e.g., Paul and the Gospel writers) believed that he said and did? What did the man Jesus actually think of himself and of his mission, as contrasted with the messianic and even divine claims that the New Testament makes about him? In short, what are the differences—and continuities—between the Jesus who lived and died in history and the Christ who lives on in believers’ faith?
Over the last four decades historical scholarship on Jesus and his times—whether conducted by Jews, Christians, or non-believers—has arrived at a strong consensus about what this undeniably historical figure (born ca. 4 BCE, died ca. 30 CE) said and did, and how he presented himself and his message to his Jewish audience. Often that historical evidence about Jesus does not easily dovetail with the traditional doctrines of Christianity. How then might one adjudicate those conflicting claims?
This is a course about history, not about faith or theology. It will examine the best available literary and historical evidence about Jesus and his times and will discuss methodologies for interpreting that evidence, in order to help participants make their own judgments and draw their own conclusions.
Presented by the Stanford Continuing Studies Program.
Released with a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license.
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Call Me Yeshua
Opening lecture of Thomas Sheehan's Continuing Studies course, The Historical Jesus.
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Customer Reviews
Good Introduction
The course focusses on the main points of the subject, but lacks the subtleties of a more advanced course. It adopts a strictly naturalistic historical method, and thus can be seen as dismissive of a theological reading. On the other hand, the course brings to the forefront a number of issues any believer (of whatever persuasion) has to confront and explain. Thus, it is an excellent presentation regardless of one's faith judgement.
Insulting
I have followed quite a few of the courses on iTunes U and this is the first one that I have found to be insulting. Mr Sheehan, who claims to be Catholic and Christian, mocks the subject of Christianity and is insulting in his demeanour and what he says. I think that he is trying, too hard, to inject some humour into the class, however, it comes across as mocking and denigrating. He treats the subject of Jesus as some kind of magical BS. He comes across as a lapsed believer who is trying to project his point of view of the subject instead presenting the facts and letting the chips fall where they may. Stanford has many good courses at iTunesU and this isn't one of them. I am not a fundamentalist, but if an instructor can't treat his subject honestly, you have a flawed course.
If you want to see how this type of course is done successfully see: Introduction to New Testament History by Dale B Martin at Open Yale Courses.