Jesus Seminar in East Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

CEUs available Contact us
for details.

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Friday & Saturday
October 8-9, 2010

First-century Jesus Movements
HOW DID CHRISTIANITY EVOLVE?

Joanna Dewey & Bernard Brandon Scott

LECTURE

Bernard Brandon Scott
From Jesus to Constantine: Disunity to Unity
The myth of Christian origins maintains that early Christians formed a unified, loving community. But looking far back into the mists of emerging Christianity, we see conflict and controversy. Brandon Scott will examine the plurality and diversity in early Christian belief, and ask why Christianity grew, why it succeeded, and how it became unified.
Friday, 7:30–9 p.m.

WORKSHOPS

Joanna Dewey
The Many Faces of Early Christianity
Early Christianities varied from a focus on Jesus’ sayings, to a focus on his life and execution, to a focus on the crucified and risen one without concern for his life. Joanna Dewey will explore the various Christian communities, their different contexts and theological perspectives. As we look at these groups, we will consider the impact of class, ethnicity (Jew or Gentile) and gender on their understandings of Christianity.
Saturday, 9:30 a.m.– 12 noon

Brandon Scott
Living in the Empire
The Roman Empire was the two thousand pound gorilla that determined reality in the ancient world. This session will examine how Jesus and Paul rejected the Empire and how Constantine turned the church into an empire.
Saturday, 1:30 – 2:30 p.m.

Brandon Scott and Joanna Dewey
What Can We Learn?
What does the diversity of early Christianity tell us about the possible configurations contemporary Christianity might take? How might we begin to learn from the diversity of the past? How might we respond to today’s “empire?”
Saturday, 3– 4 p.m.

FACULTY

Joanna Dewey (Ph.D., Graduate Theological Union) is the Harvey H. Guthrie, Jr. Professor Emerita of Biblical Studies at Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is the author of several books, including Mark as Story (with David Rhoads, 1999).

Bernard Brandon Scott (Ph.D., Vanderbilt University) is the Darbeth Distinguished Professor of New Testament at the Phillips Theological Seminary, Tulsa, OK. He is the author of several books, including The Trouble with Resurrection (forthcoming Fall 2010) and Re-Imagine the World (2002)