Evangelierna

Jesus and the Gospels

Förkunskapskrav

Innehåll

A study of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, as presented in the Gospels and early Christian literature.

Utbildningsmål

As a result of successfully completing this course, the student should be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding
-be familiar with the political, religious and socioeconomic background of the Gospels
-have a good knowledge of the historical criticisms of the Gospels, such as form criticism, source criticism, redaction criticism and canon criticism
-understand the significance of literary criticisms, such as narrative criticism, reader-response criticism
-account for the Synoptic problem and the approaches that have been suggested
-understand the significance of oral history and the transmission of Gospel history by eyewitnesses
-account for the basic structure and outline of each Gospel
-account for the distinctive contribution of each Gospel in terms of theology, style and themes
-be acquainted with the discussion of authorship for each of the Gospels
-be able to account for the quests of the historical Jesus
-be familiar with the criteria of authenticity
-account for the chronology of the life of Jesus Christ
-account for the events of the life of Jesus Christ, including his birth and childhood, his baptism, the different states of his ministry, his last week, the passion, the crucifixion, the resurrection and his ascension
-geographically identify on a map (see attached map at the end of this syllabus) the places where significant events in the life Jesus took place
-discuss the trustworthiness of the Gospels in terms of archaeology, Greco-Roman sources, Jewish sources, post-New Testament Christian sources and the rest of the New Testament.

Skills and Abilities
-use a synopsis in English to identify the distinct features of each Gospel /writer/ (vertical analysis) and to note the differences between them (horizontal analysis)
-use and make reference to commentaries on the Gospels
-write a well-structured and well-argued paper on a topic in the Gospels, using various sources, such as monographs, journals, commentaries and dictionary articles
-write a book report, identifying key points and formulate a reasoned and pertinent assessment of the work in question.

Assessment and Approach
-assess the validity of historical critical methods, such as form criticism, source criticism and redaction criticism in the analysis of the Gospels
-assess the validity of literary critical methods in the analysis of Gospels
-assess the validity of criteria of authenticity.