Open when gep_category = HUM
Each course in the Humanities category of the General Education Program will provide instruction and guidance that help students to:
By the end of the course, students will be able to: describe the contents of the representative canonical and non-canonical Christian gospels; explain the literary and historical contexts of the composition and collection of these texts; use the gospels critically as witnesses to early Christian beliefs about Jesus; use the gospels critically as sources for reconstructing the life and ministry of the “historical Jesus.”
Several small papers (3-5) pages ask students to treat various questions dealing with the gospels in the context of the aforementioned issues. (Ex. In what way does Pope Benedict find problematic Rudolf Schnackenburg’s Jesus in the Gospels: A Biblical Christology in its limitation to the historical-critical method?)
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
1) discuss and critique various approaches to the study of the gospels;
2) analyze and evaluate scholarly writings about the gospels.
Several small papers (3-5) papers are designed to familiarize students with the historical critical method. (Ex. The paper assignment dealing with comparative analysis of three pericopes from the synoptic gospels will help students develop a better understanding of the synoptic problem, a familiar question in New Testament source criticism.)
By the end of the course, students will be able to formulate arguments about the text, composition and authority of the Christian gospels that are informed and supported by established methods in New Testament scholarship.
In small papers and a research paper due at the end of the class, students will be expected to demonstrate an ability to make observations and judgments informed by accepted methods in gospel criticism. (Ex. Why is Matthew’s target in the Gospel often been viewed as an audience of Jews and Jewish-Christians? How is Matthew’s use of the prophecies of Isaiah evidence for this view?)
Open when gep_category = MATH
Each course in the Mathematial Sciences category
of the General Education Program will provide instruction and
guidance that help students to:
Open when gep_category = NATSCI
Each course in the Natural Sciences category
of the General Education Program will provide instruction and
guidance that help students to:
Open when gep_category = SOCSCI
Each course in the Social Sciences category
of the General Education Program will provide instruction and
guidance that help students to:
Open when gep_category = INTERDISC
Each course in the Interdisciplinary Perspectives category of the General Education Program will provide instruction and guidance that help students to:
Open when gep_category = VPA
Each course in the Visual and Performing Arts category of the General Education Program will provide instruction and guidance that help students to:
Open when gep_category = HES
Each course in the Health and Exercise Studies category of the General Education Program will provide instruction and guidance that help students to:
&
Open when gep_category = GLOBAL
Each course in the Global Knowledge category of the General Education Program will provide instruction and guidance that help students to achieve objective #1 plus at least one of objectives 2, 3, and 4:
By the end of the course, students will be able to: 1) evaluate the representation of Jews and Judaism in the gospels; 2) read and interpret the Christian gospels in their first century cultural and religious setting; 3) understand key themes in the gospels in the context of early Jewish and Christian messianic and eschatological expectations.
Topics assigned in several small papers ask students to consider the characterization of the Jews in the Gospel according to John, and the representation of Jesus and his teachings in the content of Jewish messianism and eschatology.
Please complete at least 1 of the following student objectives.
By the end of the course, students will be able to describe: 1) the internal developments and pressures within early Christianity that led to the canonization of the four gospels; 2) cultural and intellectual developments in the early church influencing interpretation and reinterpretation of the Christian gospels in the first three centuries of its history.
A small paper topic asks students to look at some representative examples of non-canonical gospels, their relationship to the canonical gospels, and the impact of these works on the canonization process.
Open when gep_category = USDIV
Each course in the US Diversity category
of the General Education Program will provide instruction and
guidance that help students to achieve at least 2 of the following
objectives:
Please complete at least 2 of the following student objectives.