Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] The Birth of Christianity in my other class, check out the writing assignments by Bart Ehrman I am also this semester teaching one of my favorite undergraduate courses, the Birth of Christianity, which more or less covers the history and literature of Christianity from just after the New Testament period up to the mid to end of the 4th century, focusing mainly on issues of the 2nd and 3rd centuries. For that class, students have a short writing assignment every week. They come up with a two page response to a set of prompts, usually based on reading they've done of ancient texts, and then we discuss their views in class.
[00:00:37] I've always had students do position papers, as I call them, in which they have to take a stand on a somewhat controversial issue connected with a topic as a way to get them to think about the issue ahead of time.
[00:00:48] For these papers, I'm not looking for the right answer and I simply mark them satisfactory if they've clearly thought about the issue and established some views of it, or or unsatisfactory if they more or less blew it off.
[00:01:01] Students almost never complain about doing this, and it's a huge benefit for discussions.
[00:01:06] If I was simply to say, read this text and we'll talk about it, some, maybe lots of them wouldn't read it, or they'd at least just skim it and they have no opinions about much of anything and the discussions will be like pulling teeth.
[00:01:19] But with the position papers they've read, they've thought they've written, and they're prepared to discuss, it works really well.
[00:01:26] So here are the paper assignments I'm using for this term.
[00:01:29] Have at it yourself. Ain't grading yours though.
[00:01:34] Welcome to Instructions for your bi weekly bit of discussion. Fun. The position papers for basic instructions, otherwise known as absolute sine qua non, the purpose, the length and the grading, and so on. See the syllabus. But do remember these are to be two pages, double spaced and turned in before the class itself.
[00:01:53] Position Paper 1 Getting Started Blessed are the neophytes. For this, your first position paper. You have just one assignment. List the three most important questions that you would like to have answered in this course.
[00:02:07] These should be things that you're most curious about with respect to the early Christianity.
[00:02:12] There are no dumb or wrong questions to ask here. I'm simply interested in knowing what you're interested in.
[00:02:19] And I'm interested in you too, knowing what you're interested in.
[00:02:23] The only way to have your curiosity satisfied is to know what your curiosity is. And if you're lucky, it will just get curiouser and curiouser. Note for this paper we don't need you to write two pages. Just list your three questions. But think about it and come up with some things you would really like to know something about.
[00:02:43] Position Paper 2 Jesus and the Other Divine Men.
[00:02:48] Your first task for this position paper is to read the following selections found on canvas under files taken from David Cartledge and David Dungan and their book Documents for the Study of the Gospels, third Edition.
[00:03:01] These passages are all drawn from ancient sources that relate the words, the deeds and the experiences attributed to persons who were thought to be divine by some people living in the Greco Roman world.
[00:03:13] Now read the Gospel According to Luke, chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 82 1, 24.
[00:03:23] For your paper, you are to list three specific ways in which Jesus, as portrayed in Luke, is similar to other people who are thought to be divine.
[00:03:32] Give exact chapter and verse references when referring to passages in Luke.
[00:03:37] Are these similarities exactly the same or are there differences as well? How do you explain these similarities and these Differences?
[00:03:46] Position paper 3 a pagan, a Jew and a Christian walk into a bar.
[00:03:51] Pretend it is 200 CE and you're in a wine shop in Antioch in Syria, sitting next to a table where three people are in an intense conversation.
[00:04:00] You gather pretty quickly that one of them is like you, a follower of the traditional religions. You know, they worship Zeus and Athena and Apollo, his own family gods and so on. Another is a very devout Jew, and the other is one of those newfangled Christians.
[00:04:16] They're arguing about religion.
[00:04:18] Both the pagan and the Jew think the Christian is nuts, and they tell him why in turn. So the pagan has some reasons and the Jew has some reasons. The Christian then responds to them both to argue that in fact his religion is superior to either of theirs.
[00:04:34] For your paper, reconstruct their conversation.
[00:04:38] Position paper 4 incentives for conversions Miracle Stories in Christian Legend before getting on to writing this paper, do a bit of quiet thinking.
[00:04:49] Lots of pagans over the years abandoned their religious traditions and their practices in order to become Christian. Millions of them over time. In your opinion, based on what you know so far, what led them to do so?
[00:05:01] Something must have led them to forsake what they and all their families and communities had always thought and what they always done in order to join this new church.
[00:05:12] But what would that have been then? Read the selections from the Apocryphal Acts in ant.
[00:05:18] Selections 48 to 50. That's pages 310 to 329, paying special attention to how people convert to the Christian faith.
[00:05:27] The Apocryphal Acts are legendary Accounts of the missionary activities of the apostles of Jesus after his death.
[00:05:33] The episodes that you are reading for this position paper show how the apostles convinced people to convert. The stories themselves are clearly legendary, but what do they claim? Convince people to start worshipping the God of Jesus and him alone rather than the traditional gods. It's clearly miracles.
[00:05:50] Is that plausible? Could Christian miracle working abilities have converted the pagan masses?
[00:05:55] But these are legends, right?
[00:05:58] Still, think about it for a bit. Why would believing that Jesus followers could do spectacular miracles lead someone to convert?
[00:06:10] In your paper, summarize a few of the accounts and then explain the logic of this missionary strategy. Do you see other reasons in these accounts for people to convert? And if so, here's the really interesting question.
[00:06:24] Would the followers of Jesus really have had to do miracles for people to be convinced?
[00:06:29] What about historians who don't believe in miracles? How could they possibly think that this would be the reason people would convert if miracles don't actually happen? Can you think of a way that miracles could convert people if the miracles never really happened or not?
[00:06:48] Position paper 5 the martyrdom of Polycarp Read the martyrdom of polycarp carefully in ant 34. 39.
[00:06:59] This is a fascinating account with numerous points of interest.
[00:07:02] Dig into it as deeply as you can and see what intrigues you most about it. We want your paper to show that you've thought hard about this text.
[00:07:11] For your paper, you should pick two or three interesting features of the martyrdom and discuss them.
[00:07:18] Some of the options There are others who is portrayed as the guilty party who really wanted Polycarp killed? Why? What had he done wrong?
[00:07:27] Why was Polycarp willing or even eager to be martyred?
[00:07:31] Couldn't he have got off the hook fairly easily? Why hadn't he done so?
[00:07:36] Why does his refusal to do so seem so infuriating to the proconsul?
[00:07:43] Is the proconsul really the bad guy here? Why is he himself trying to get Polycarp off the hook? What's being emphasized in the description of Polycarp's actual death? What miracles were involved and are they believable? And what do you make of the way his followers treated his remains?
[00:08:00] There are other issues you could address. Pick two or three that you find most interesting and spend your paper discussing them.
[00:08:08] Whatever you choose, end your paper by explaining what the author of this account was trying to achieve. Was he simply providing an objective account of what really happened for the sake of the record?
[00:08:19] Or was his account meant to teach his readers something important about themselves and their own lives? And if so What?
[00:08:28] Position Paper 6 the Epistle of Barnabas Read the extracts of the Epistle of Barnabas in ant.
[00:08:36] 114, 123 carefully, twice.
[00:08:42] Summarize the author's views of Jews, Judaism and the Jewish Bible, providing verse, references and support.
[00:08:48] For example, the author appears to think that Judaism is in particular what does he think is the problem with Judaism and with the Jews understanding of their own Scriptures?
[00:09:00] Why does he think that his views are superior to theirs?
[00:09:04] What do you think of his own interpretations of the scriptures as described, for example, in chapters 7, 9, or 10?
[00:09:11] Choose examples that strike you as most interesting.
[00:09:14] Do these interpretations seem plausible? Are they superior to a more literal reading? Why or why not? And at the end of the day, do you think it will be appropriate to say that this book is anti Jewish, anti Semitic?
[00:09:31] Position Paper 7 Jesus the Super Brat the Infancy Gospel of Thomas Reading the Infancy Gospel of Thomas several times, that's Ant. Pages 278 to 282 the gospel is often said to portray the young Jesus as a super brat. The question for this paper is is whether or not that is right.
[00:09:55] Choose three episodes in the account and compare each one separately to an account where Jesus does something roughly comparable as an adult in any of the Gospels of the New Testament.
[00:10:06] What are the major similarities and differences? What do you think the author is trying to say about Jesus in both accounts? Is the point of the Infancy Gospel mainly that Jesus was mischievous, or is there some more profound point related to what he is said to have done as an adult?
[00:10:22] Either answer could be correct, but you need to explain why you think so.
[00:10:29] Position Paper 8 the Coptic Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter first review your notes from the class lecture on Gnosticism. Then read the Coptic Apocalypse or Revelation of Peter from the Nag Hammadi Library as found in anti selection 39 pages 260 to 63.
[00:10:49] Notice how in the opening paragraphs the author seems to attack Orthodox Christians as ignorant and misguided.
[00:10:56] For your paper you are to focus on the highly unusual description, allegedly by Peter himself, of what he saw at the crucifixion of Jesus.
[00:11:05] What strikes you as the most unusual features of this description?
[00:11:09] How many Jesuses are there? Look carefully. How can there be more than one? Who or what is the one on the cross? And who or what is the one above the cross? Why is he laughing? Who is the one who then comes to try to explain it all to Peter?
[00:11:24] How could you use this narrative to explain the Gnostic understanding of the body and the soul the nature of Christ and the way of salvation.
[00:11:32] And what would the Gnostic author have objected to in the views of orthodox Christians who had different views?
[00:11:42] Position Paper 9 the bizarre sayings of the Gospel of Thomas Review your lecture notes and readings on the basic tenets of Gnosticism and then read through the Coptic Gospel of Thomas Ant. Pages 283 291, carefully. Several times on the third or the fourth time through, make a note of sayings that a strike you as similar to the ones you've already read in the New Testament Gospels, and b strike you as both unlike the sayings of the New Testament and as well. Pretty weird.
[00:12:15] For your paper, choose three of the sayings of the Gospel of Thomas that seem pretty bizarre to you and give an interpretation of these sayings in the light of the basic Gnostic beliefs from your reading and from what we discussed in class.
[00:12:27] Then try to come up with a non gnostic interpretation of the same sayings.
[00:12:32] Which interpretation seems more convincing to you?
[00:12:38] Position paper 10 the Gospel of Mary Read the Gospel of Mary, that's Ant. 301, 305, carefully, several times.
[00:12:48] This reading is not an excerpt, but is the entire Gospel as it survived.
[00:12:53] It's found only in one manuscript and that one is missing. Chapters 1, 6, 11, 15 try to explain Mary's vision in light of what you know about the Gnostic myths.
[00:13:05] For your paper, you can discuss either of the two following issues.
[00:13:10] Either Give a detailed assessment of the myth that Mary relates to the disciples in chapters 10, 15 and 17.
[00:13:17] Can you infer what the first two authorities were? What actually are all these authorities?
[00:13:23] Why does the soul want to escape them? How does it do so? What is this myth trying to teach about the nature of human existence and how one should live one's life?
[00:13:32] Or discuss the relationship of Mary to the male disciples in the text. What are the tensions between them? Why is there conflict? What is the text trying to teach about Mary and women in general?
[00:13:46] What is the point about gendered relations?
[00:13:49] What do you make of its portrayal of the male disciples?
[00:13:53] Is it possible to see this text as an early Christian feminist manifesto? Why or why not?
[00:14:00] Position Paper 11 the Acts of Thecla this is one of the most famous legendary accounts of early Christianity outside the New Testament. Read it several times and think hard about it. For your paper, you should summarize the narrative in half a page and then discuss one of the following issues.
[00:14:21] What is this narrative's understanding of sex and sexuality in relation to the Christian message?
[00:14:26] Where do you see this understanding expressed most clearly in the text? How does this view relate to the basic question of what it means to be Christian for this text?
[00:14:35] Or in what ways does this account present the woman Thecla as the model Christian? In what ways does this account promote the importance of women before God and in the Christian movement?
[00:14:45] In which ways does it show the difficulties women had in playing a significant role in the church and its mission?
[00:14:52] Or some people think that Paul comes off very badly in this account in relationship to Thecla?
[00:14:58] Which parts of the narrative would support this reading? Are there counter arguments to be made to it?
[00:15:04] What's your opinion of the matter?
[00:15:07] Or do you see Thecla's passion for Paul as displaced sexual attraction? Is this some kind of spiritualized passion that is to replace physical intimacy?
[00:15:17] What do you make of those passages that seem to have strong erotic overtones?
[00:15:24] Position Paper 12 the Greek Apocalypse of Peter.
[00:15:29] This is the oldest Christian account we have of the torments of hell, described in remarkably graphic terms. There is nothing like this in the New Testament.
[00:15:38] Read the account carefully several times, and for your paper, focus on the descriptions of the punishments of sinners and deal with these questions.
[00:15:47] What kinds of sins and sinners are punished? See if you can categorize them. Are there any surprises there? Any sins that you would not expect to lead to such harsh outcomes? Who escapes the punishments and why?
[00:16:01] Are there close relationships between some of the sins and their punishments?
[00:16:05] That is, do the punishments fit the crimes? Always? Sometimes at the end of your paper, provide an evaluation of this portrayal of God's justice.
[00:16:16] Is it right for people to have to suffer torture for all eternity for sins they committed for a few years?
[00:16:22] If God does require this, is he still a God of love? Why can't there be but repentance later, once people realize the mistakes they've made? And in your opinion, is this fair?
[00:16:33] Finally, what do you think this book is trying to teach, and to whom is it trying to teach it?
[00:16:42] Position paper 13 who cares?
[00:16:46] You're talking to someone about religion, and as sometimes happens, she turns on the steam. Look, she says, Christianity has done enormous harm to the world. Before he came on the scene, Roman religions were highly tolerant of one another, and none of them arrogantly insisted it was right and the others were wrong.
[00:17:04] It's because of Christianity and other exclusivist religions that came in its wake, such as Islam, that we ended up with religious wars and grotesque religious violence. We ended up with the imposition of one group's social and ethical values on others, and it sometimes leads still in our day to horrible physical psychological damage, persecution, physical punishment, and even execution.
[00:17:26] Even more, Christianity introduced the awful teaching that God is going to send everyone who objects to this message to to hell to be tormented for all eternity.
[00:17:36] The Church wielded this power of punishment over everyone, and once it had power, it became fabulously rich, dominant and violent, leading to anti Semitism, the hatred of other peace loving religions, and the almost complete oppression of women.
[00:17:51] Its support of rigorous asceticism has deprived billions of people from the simple joys of life. Christianity has been used to justify slavery, bigotry, capitalist greed, oppression and hatred of the other.
[00:18:06] She concludes, the triumph of Christianity over the other religions of the ancient world is one of the greatest disasters that civilization has ever seen.
[00:18:17] So how do you respond.
