COMP 263
Reading Jesus, Writing Gospels: Christian Origins in Context
Last Offered Fall 2021
Division II Writing Skills
Cross-listed REL 270 / COMP 263 / CLAS 270
This course is not offered in the current catalog or this is a previous listing for a current course.

What were the religious and cultural landscapes in which Christianity emerged? How did inhabitants of the ancient Mediterranean world speak about the concept and significance of religion? How have scholars of early Christianity answered these questions? What are the implications of their reconstructions of early Christian history? The course is divided into four parts. The first part establishes the interpretive approach of the course. The second part of this course addresses these questions by examining the formation of Christianity from its origins as a Jewish movement until its legalization, using a comparative socio-historical approach. The third part of the course focuses on the earliest literature produced by the Jesus movement and consider it within a comparative framework developed in the first half of the course. The final part of the course emphasizes modern interpretations of Jesus and the Jesus movement; here we shall be examining how scholars make use of ancient materials to frame their arguments.