Dr. Hanges teaching

 

Religion 175: Critical Study of Biblical Literature This class serves as an introductory survey to the history and methods of the modern critical study of the Bible.   The course does not require prior knowledge of the Bible, and serves as the prerequisite for most upper level courses dealing with topics in ancient Judaism and early Christianity offered in the Department of Comparative Religion.  In this class students will be introduced to the history of the historical and interpretive problems posed by the biblical texts and learn to examine selected texts from the Bible employing the common tools of critical biblical scholarship such as (but not limited to) literary analysis, textual criticism, feminist theory, socio-historical criticism, and biblical archaeology.  Students will approach the texts by situating them within their ancient Near Eastern or ancient Mediterranean cultural contexts.  Consequently, in addition to the collection of independent texts that eventually coalesce as the various canons of the Bible, students will necessarily become familiar with non-canonical texts written by Jews and early Christians, as well as with relevant analogies from non-Jewish and non-Christian textual sources.  This course fulfills MPFoundation section IIB, and the Historical Perspective (H).

 

 

Religion 231: Paul and the Beginnings of Christianity

This class is a favorite of mine, and from the responses I get, of the students also.  This class offers the student an excellent opportunity to learn about historical-critical methods, and see them applied to perhaps the most important figure in the earliest expansion of what comes to be called Christianity. We start with such topics as text-criticism, establishing the cultural context in which our subject lived and wrote, and move on to deal in detail with the first-hand witness Paul provides for the earliest Christian communities outside of Roman Palestine. The course winds up with a survey of Paul’s legacy, asking how later writers used and understood Paul’s letters. This class will take students directly into the critical study of religion and show them how modern scholars arrive at their descriptions of the world of the New Testament.

You can click here to download the course syllabus.

 

 

Religion 232: The Development of Christianity: 100 - 451

It’s all too easy to assume that they way modern Christian communities understand Christianity must also be the case at the beginnings of the Church’s development. In reality, the world of developing Christianity is vibrantly diverse.  In this course, students get the opportunity to discover this diversity, the various kinds of Christians championing their particular views on very fundamental issues, like the nature of Christ, the appropriate form of institutional structure, and the relation of the believer to the broader society and the state.  Again this course is a great introduction to the practice of historical-critical method.

You can click here to download the course syllabus.

 

 

Religion 334: Women’s Religious Experiences in the Ancient Mediterranean World

This course is also a favorite because it introduces students to the role of archaeological data and inscriptions as fundamental sources for the common religious experiences of women. Here, in addition to what we can say about women in ancient Christianity and Judaism, we get to examine a range of ancient cults, their physical features, their sacred laws, and other literary evidence describing them. In terms of historical method, students will gain extensive experience in dealing with primary sources and the challenges such sources offer. This course also includes invited guest appearances by other faculty members who can contribute their own expertise in specific areas of our study. This course is team taught with Dr. Bidmead.

 

 

Religion 336: Jesus and the Gospels

Perhaps no course I teach is more exciting than this one. Not only is the question of the historical Jesus a perennial topic of news media coverage, but the fact that there are so many possible ways of describing Jesus as an historical figure suggests implications that extend far beyond the academy. This class is set up to be a context for personal engagement with the texts of the gospels. Each student will become intimately acquainted with the parallels between the various gospels, and with the range of possible ways their literary dependence might be understood. In the end, the analysis of these parallels will establish the grounds upon which each student might construct her/his own description of the historical Jesus. Students will certainly come to understand why scholars have so much difficulty reaching any universally-accepted conclusions.

 

 

Religion 430/530: Early Christian Literature and Religion

Offered every other year, this class provides a great opportunity for advanced study of Early Christianity and the Late Antique culture in which it develops. Advanced undergraduate students get the chance to work with graduate students in a small seminar context. The themes explored in this class are decided by students and instructor based on the students' current interest areas. Sometimes this allows us to study texts in the ancient languages, if enough students are available. Recent themes have included such diverse topics as "The Acts of Paul and other Extra-canonical Christian Literature" and "Ancient Greek Hero Cults: Texts and Archaeology." This course is a great context for studying the intersection of Early Christianity and the Greco-Roman world.

 

 

 

“But many people, just like children [are terrified by] the masks, are likewise terrified by Greek philosophy, fearing lest it lead them astray.   However, if the faith that is among them is of such a kind (for I would not speak of [a quest for] knowledge), that it should be dismantled with arguments from probability, let it be destroyed, on account of this [eventuality] especially let them confess to not having the truth.   For truth, it is said, is unconquerable, while false opinion is torn down completely.”

Titus Flavius Clemens (Clement of Alexandria), Stromata 6.10.80-81, trans. Hanges