Audios & videos
Once & Future Faith
Conference
Spring 2001
Karen Armstrong
Suggestions for a Second Axial Age
Karen Armstrong will look at the experience of transcendence as it was conceived
and expressed in all of the great world religions during the Axial Age of antiquity (c. 700–200 BCE). She will examine the various ways transcendence was understood in
later generations and discuss the modern dilemma of faith, asking whether we are now in the throes of a Second Axial Age.
1 DVD, 90 minutes, $20.00
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1 VHS tape, 90 minutes, $20.00
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1 cassette tape, 90 minutes, $12.50
Add to cart Don Cupitt
Reforming Christianity
Principles and prospects
We no longer expect a future world, either after death or at the end of history. We
can no longer see ourselves as an army on the march, or as individuals journeying towards a blessed future. The ecclesiastical period, it seems, is over. What is now
required is a rethought, "kingdom" version of Christianity. A new epoch has already begun. 1 DVD, 90 minutes, $20.00
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1 VHS tape, 90 minutes, $20.00
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1 cassette tape, 90 minutes, $12.50 Add to cart Lloyd Geering
The Secular Trinity
To do justice to the continuing influence of Jesus, ancient Christian thinkers devised
the twin doctrines of the incarnation and the Holy Trinity. Today's cultural setting, and renewed interest in the historical Jesus, call for a radical reformulation of the
Christian heritage — what could be described as a secular trinity of cosmic creativity, humanity, and global consciousness.
1 DVD, 90 minutes, $20.00
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1 VHS tape, 90 minutes, $20.00
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1 cassette tape, 90 minutes, $12.50
Add to cart John Shelby Spong
A Christianity for Tomorrow
Beyond theism —but not beyond God. Beyond incarnation — but not beyond divinity. If Christianity moves in these directions, its liturgy, which assumes a theistic
God, and its structures, which assume an incarnate Christ, will have to change dramatically. Bishop Spong believes it will and that we will still recognize it as Christian. 1 DVD, 90 minutes, $20.00 Add to cart
1 VHS tape, 90 minutes, $20.00 Add to cart
1 cassette tape, 90 minutes, $12.50 Add to cart Jesus Seminar Discussions
In addition to the guest presentations described above, the Jesus Seminar discussed seminar papers that were distributed and read in advance of the meeting.
Descriptions of the papers may be found below. The seminar papers were gathered together with the presentations by Armstrong, Cupitt, Geering and Spong and published in a book entitled The Once & Future Faith which is also available for sale on this site.
- Session 1
Robert Funk's opening remarks and discussion of Karen Armstrong's Suggestions for a Second Axial Age, and Lloyd Geering's The Secular Trinity.
1 cassette tape, 90 minutes, $12.50
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- Session 2
A discussion of Don Cupitt in his presentation on Reforming Christianity, and by John Shelby Spong in his A Christianity for Tomorrow.
1 cassette tape, 90 minutes, $12.50
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- Session 3
Topics raised by Roy Hoover in The Problem of an Incredible Creed and the Promise of a Credible Faith and by Hal Taussig in History Matters.
1 cassette tape, 90 minutes, $12.50
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- Sesssion 4
Issues raised by Robert Miller in his paper, Is the Apocalyptic Jesus History? and by Brandon Scott in From Parable to Ethics.
1 cassette tape, 90 minutes, $12.50
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- Session 5
Issues raised by Arthur Dewey in his paper Can We Let Jesus Die?and Stephen Patterson's paper on Jesus death, Consider Yourself Dead.
1 cassette tape, 90 minutes, $12.50
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- Session 6
Topics raised by Lane McGaughy's Jesus and the American Monomyth and James Veitch's God After Jesus and Paul.
1 cassette tape, 90 minutes, $12.50
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Descriptions of Seminar Papers Robert W. Funk
Once & Future Faith Scientific and historical knowledge has eroded traditional Christian dogmas. Many
Christian affirmations fall in the category of relics, while others border on root issues that still concern us: a deep regard for truth, care for each other, and respect for the
planet. Jesus of Nazareth, like other world-class sages, has bequeathed us a compendium of insights worthy of further consideration. We must abandon elements
of the Christian creeds that are no longer credible and form an agenda to reinvent Christianity. Robert W. Funk is founder of the Jesus Seminar and Director of the Westar
Institute. A Guggenheim Fellow and Fulbright Senior Scholar, he is the author of Honest to Jesus (1996) and co-author of The Five Gospels (1993) and The Acts of Jesus (1998)
Arthur J. Dewey
From Sacrifice to Solidarity
Reconsideration of the death of Jesus requires a review of the evidence about his death. How did the tradition develop in the earliest communities? Does the ancient
genre of the death of the suffering innocent open up new possibilities for understanding the significance of Jesus' death? Arthur J. Dewey is Professor of Theology, Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio,
and author of Spirit and Letter in Paul (1996).
Roy W. Hoover
Incredible Creed, Credible Faith
The Christian Church today is facing a crisis: traditional concepts of God and Christ have lost their credibility. Social justice activism and new forms of spirituality cannot
fill the void. The time has come to trade in an antiquated Christian faith for a one that resonates with our modern experience and understanding of the world.
Roy W. Hoover is Weyerhaeuser Professor of Biblical Literature and Professor of Religion Emeritus at Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington, and co-author of The Five Gospels (1993).
Lane C. McGaughy
Jesus and the American Monomyth The Jesus Seminar has distinguished the historical Jesus from the mythic
descending-ascending redeemer god of the early Christian creed. But that is only half the task: the mythic understanding of Jesus has been co-opted by the American
monomyth of the lone hero who defeats the forces of evil. The recovery of the historical Jesus can also help us develop a critique of the foundational myths of American popular culture.
Lane C. McGaughy is Geo. H. Atkinson Professor of Religious and Ethical Studies, Willamette University, Salem, Oregon.
Robert J. Miller
Is the Apocalyptic Jesus History? For most of the twentieth century, scholars believed that the historical Jesus preached
the imminent end of history and the forcible imposition of God's kingdom. The Jesus Seminar challenged this apocalyptic portrait of Jesus. Robert Miller analyzes the
scholarly debate and explores what is at stake for our understanding of Jesus and for the future of a viable faith true to his name.
Robert J. Miller is Scholar-in-Residence, Westar Institute, Santa Rosa, California, and author of The Jesus Seminar and Its Critics (1999).
Stephen J. Patterson
The Sacrifice That Wasn't
One distinctive feature of early Christian worship was that it did not include the sacrifice of an animal. Christians also refused to participate in public sacrifices to the
Emperor and many abstained from eating sacrificial meat. Yet, they spoke of Jesus' death as a sacrifice. Stephen Patterson explores how ritual, culinary practice, and
rhetoric together form a poetics of protest and abstention among the followers of Jesus in Imperial Rome. Stephen J. Patterson is Professor of New Testament, Eden Theological
Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, and author of The God of Jesus (1999).
B. Brandon Scott
From Parables to Ethics How do we construct an ethics, an abstract system, from a concrete, parabolic
thinker? This is the primary problem faced in discussing the implied ethics of Jesus' language and actions. Brandon Scott moves from the parables of Jesus to their ethical
implications to develop an "ethics of Jesus." He then asks how the parables redress the world of the hearer. Bernard Brandon Scott is Darbeth Distinguished Professor of New Testament
at the Phillips Theological Seminary, University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and author of Hear Then the Parable (1989).
Hal Taussig
Thinking Christologically about the Historical Jesus Theologians and biblical scholars have generally not consulted one another about the
ways historical Jesus research and christology can complement each another. Typically both work with outdated versions of the other, resulting in arbitrary and
facile appropriations of material from previous generations of scholarship. How can they participate in disciplined conversations in which each is informed by the current wisdom of the other?
Hal Taussig is Visiting Professor of New Testament at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and author of Jesus Before God
(1999).
James Veitch
God, after Jesus and Paul
When the Jesus movement and the Jewish community parted ways, Christians abandoned the God of Jewish tradition and created a new story in which Jesus
became God. The Council of Nicea set this story in theological concrete. But the findings of the Jesus Seminar about the Jesus of history reopen the God question.
James Veitch explores the question of who God is or may become and sketches some of the implications for Christian faith in a post-modern world.
James Veitch is Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and author of Can Humanity Survive? (1996). Copyright Top of page |
