Jesus' Resurrection: Historical Reflections

What does it really mean to say Jesus' life, death and resurrection 'saved' us from our sins? How is one to think about other world religions, given the claims of the Catholic Church about the uniqueness of Jesus Christ's role in the salvation of all of human history? Through this unique series, you will discover extraordinary answers to these questions and others from scripture and 2,000 years of tradition. This series will address the fundamental issues of the Catholic faith in a directly relevant way. It is astonishing that an unschooled peasant from a town in an insignificant portion of Israel who, at the most, was publicly active for three short years, became arguably the single most important individual who has ever belonged to the human race. Through this series of lectures, you will explore the development of the Catholic understanding of the meaning of Jesus Christ. This area of theology, called 'Christology,' forms a central place in the more general area of theological thought called 'systematic theology.' You will trace Christian thinking about Jesus Christ from the days of his ministry in 1st-century Palestine through the days of the early Church, the medieval period, the reformation, and modern times. People of the Christian faith profess that Jesus is fully human, and fully divine, while distinguishing Him from God the Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus, Christians affirm, was one personal reality, webbed into the whole human race, the planet earth, and the entire cosmos. Explore what this means. Who is Jesus?