Portraits of Christ Series 2

The gospels, like the whole of scripture, hold out a divine-human tension, revealing truths that are at once eternal and yet expressed in ways that are historically conditioned. The Eternal, as it were, birthed in time. Using the language, idioms, and cultural references of their day, the four Evangelists (Mark, Matthew, Luke and John) crafted literary "Portraits of Christ" that would best speak to their respective audiences. When we lose sight of those ancient references, modern Christians inevitably miss some of the rich and textured meaning of Jesus' teachings, parables, and miracles throughout the gospels. In this second semester of St. Columba's Portraits of Christ series, Fr. Vincent Pizzuto, PhD, will introduce participants to the cultural, literary, religious, and historical context into which the New Testament was born. How was Christianity distinct from other religions of ancient Rome? Did you know we encounter six different Herods in the New Testament? What where the marks of ancient Judaism that distinguished it from the pagan religions of the Greco-Roman world? Who were the Pharisees and the Sadducees that Jesus frequently encountered in the gospels? What did the early church look like? How unified were early Christians in their beliefs about Jesus? Did you know some ancient Christians were polytheists, others denied the divinity of Jesus, and more surprising still, some denied the humanity of Jesus? As we come to learn of these fascinating aspects of the ancient world in which the gospels were written, we will also explore the earliest references to Jesus outside of Christian literature to see what (if anything) they can tell us about him or the early church itself. Especially designed for contemplatives, this second series of classes continues our rich, meditative, and stimulating exploration of the four gospels and the tools that help us to interpret them in ways that ground the life and practice of contemplative Christians today.