Roman Imperial Theology
John Dominic Crossan
Before Jesus ever existed—and even if Jesus had never existed—these were the titles of Caesar the Augustus: Divine, Son of God, God, God from God, Lord, Redeemer, Liberator, and Savior of the World. When those specific titles were taken from a Roman emperor on the Palatine hill and given to a Jewish peasant on the Nazareth ridge, it was either low lampoon or high treason. Since the Romans were not laughing, their choice was clear. But what exactly—apart from identical terms and titles in confrontation with one another—was the precise content of that Roman imperial theological program incarnate in Caesar, as opposed to the Pauline Christian theological program incarnate in Christ?

John Dominic Crossan is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, DePaul University, Chicago. He has written more than twenty books in the last forty years, four of which have become national religious bestsellers: The Historical Jesus (1991), Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (1994), Who Killed Jesus (1995), and The Birth of Christianity (1998). He is a former co-chair of the Jesus Seminar, and a former chair of the Historical Jesus Section of the Society of Biblical Literature.

Scribes, Scrolls & Scripture
Pamela Eisenbaum
How was the Bible transcribed, transmitted and translated and what are the implications for today? In this workshop we will study how the biblical text was preserved as well as the ways in which it was transformed by scribal transmission, translation, and interpretation. With the assistance of online resources, including digital images of early biblical manuscripts, Eisenbaum will illustrate the historic transmission of the scriptures. Participants will also have the opportunity to study and reflect on specific variant readings and how they affect some key sayings and stories of the Bible.

Pamela Eisenbaum is Associate Professor of Biblical Studies and Christian Origins at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado, and is associate faculty of the Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Denver. She is the author of The Jewish Heroes of Christian History: Hebrews 11 in Literary Context and Invitation to Romans. She appeared in the recent ABC documentary, “Jesus and Paul: The Word and the Witness,” and is currently writing a book on Paul.

Who Would Jesus Bomb?
Jack A. Hill
For Jesus, economic justice, war and peace, and environmental stewardship are the core “values,” not national security, the sanctity of marriage, or law and order. “Religion” has to do not with exclusivist, judgmental and otherworldly beliefs and practices, but rather with making new, vital connections between ourselves, those we label as enemies, and with the earth. Hill invites us to explore how presidential nominees stack up against Jesus’ ethic. He concludes that religion is in fact “front and center” in U.S. politics though we may disagree about how particular politicians do or do not embody religious ethics.

Jack A. Hill is Associate Professor of Religion at Texas Christian University. A specialist in comparative ethics, he has coordinated peace and justice programs and served as an ethics consultant for churches, universities and grassroots organizations in the U.S., Fiji and South Africa. He is the author of several books including Ethics in the Global Village (forthcoming 2008), Making Ethical Decisions (2002) and Seeds of Transformation: Discerning the Values of the Next Generation (1998).

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