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Course Description
This course introduces the central stories of our Christian faith, the gospel accounts of Jesus, the Word made flesh. These stories tell the origins of our faith, but they are more than merely historical accounts. They are also "gospels" or "good news," calling us to life in an ever-deepening relationship with God. The stories and teachings mean to form us into the Word of God ourselves, in fellowship with the Christian community. In this course, you will be invited into a deeper relationship with Christ through the critical study of the four gospels and Acts of the Apostles. We will explore and compare each gospel account, imagine the pastoral circumstances of their composition, and consider the problems and promises posed by a story that comes to us in four such different forms.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Identify at least three principles of Catholic biblical interpretation.
- Distinguish key characteristics and themes of each gospel.
- Differentiate the Christologies of each evangelist and tie these to their contexts.
- Articulate the gospel message for your pastoral situation today.
How to Use this Website
This website complements the class. The tabs to the left provide materials
made available through the class, like the syllabus and directions for the final assignment. There are some other resources that will also appear in an abbreviated form in the course textbook, The Gospels: A Pastoral Introduction (scripture
tools, a bibliography, and a glossary). The other tabs provide additional resources that may help you in your ministry, such as outlines
of Church teaching, introductions to exegesis, and guides for theological teflection.
You are welcome to use these materials as resources for your work,
although I ask that if you reproduce them on paper for your parishioners
you indicate their authorship.
Several of these resources are pages designed for our undergraduate
and graduate students at Santa Clara University. Thus, some of the
pages have different navigation and a different look. But those pages open in new tabs, so you can always get back to our course pages by checking your tabs and reopening the one that begins with "Diocese of San José."
Clicking on the header image of the four evangelists will bring you back to this page. Clicking on the Diocese of San José graphic will take you to the Diocese's ILM website.
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