A Death that Would Not Die
A Primer on Jesus & the Passion
by Arthur Dewey
How did the grim facts of the death of Jesus become the occasion for the invention of the passion narrative? Following his death, Jesus believers took a courageous stand against the Roman Empire’s attempts to liquidate all traces of Jesus. Why did his death matter to them? How did they go about making sense of it? Arthur Dewey will ask whether Jesus anticipated his death, what crucifixion entailed, and why it was employed by the Romans. He will explore the various ways in which Christian communities creatively remembered the death of Jesus.
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Two audio set (64 & 62 mins)
CDs $20; MP3s $5.99
Arthur J. Dewey (Th.D., Harvard University) is Professor of Theology at Xavier University in Cincinnati. A distinguished teacher, writer, translator and commentator, he is the author of Inventing the Passion: How the Death of Jesus Was Remembered (2017) and co-author of The Complete Gospel Parallels (with Robert J. Miller, 2011) and The Authentic Letters of Paul (with Roy W. Hoover, Lane C. McGaughy, and Daryl D. Schmidt, 2010). His Wisdom Notes: Theological Riffs on Life and Living (2016) brings forward his poetic perspective that was aired on Public Radio in Cincinnati for more than a dozen years, as well as his editorials in The Fourth R.
This lecture took place at the Westar Institute Spring 2018 National Meeting in Santa Rosa, California.