Bethlehem2005

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Friday & Saturday
March 11-12, 2005

Jesus in the First
& Twenty-first Centuries

Robert J. Miller & Hal Taussig

LECTURE

The Search for the Historical Jesus
The gospels portray Jesus as the Messiah and divine savior. Within the gospels, however, we can glimpse another Jesus, the Jewish teacher and healer with a radical vision of the kingdom of God. The search for the historical Jesus examines the gospels in order to discover who Jesus was before he became the object of Christian belief.

FRIDAY, 7:30–9 P.M.

WORKSHOPS

The Jesus of the First Century
What do we know about the historical Jesus? This workshop will examine selected sayings of Jesus, showing why scholars consider them authentic and suggesting surprising ways they might have been understood. In the process, they will introduce participants to the methods of modern scholarship used to distinguish the words of the historical Jesus from those later attributed to him.

SATURDAY, 9:30 A.M.-NOON

The Jesus of the Twenty-first Century

Can the historical Jesus revitalize or transform Christian faith? Does this Jesus have any relevance for people who claim no allegiance to Christianity? Since the eighteenth century, the church and its critics have used Jesus to talk about the meaning of human existence, and ultimately about the nature of God. The presenters offer their insights and engage participants in a discussion about the relation of the historical Jesus to those questions.

SATURDAY, 1:30–4 P.M.

Robert J. Miller is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Juniata College in Pennsylvania. He is the author of Born Divine: The Births of Jesus and Other Sons of God (2003) and The Jesus Seminar and Its Critics (1999), and editor of The Apocalyptic Jesus (2001) and The Complete Gospels (1992).

Hal Taussig is Visiting Professor of New Testament at Union Theological Seminary, NYC, Graduate Faculty at the Chestnut Hill College and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia, and co-pastor at the Chestnut Hill United Methodist Church. His several books include Re-imagining Life Together in America (2002) and Jesus Before God (1999).

All events at:

Unitarian Universalist Church of the Lehigh Valley
424 Center St.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18018

Registration:

All Sessions