Who Do You Say That Jesus Is?

Today in Dr. McGrath's Sunday school class we began our series on the person of Jesus. We began by briefly discussing what historical study can and cannot do, and our tendency to project our interests and values onto Jesus.

Rather than follow that with a survey of the New Testament writings relevant to the subject, or the creeds, we began by simply bringing up questions that we hope to look at and to which we are seeking answers. Some of the topics that came up include how Jesus understood himself, whether Jesus shared concepts from his time (such as demons), what Jesus was like growing up and formative influences on his life, Jesus' sense of humor (including the question of whether he ever nailed Peter's sandal to the floor).

In talking about the childhood of Jesus, I mentioned the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. I think everyone interested in this topic ought to read it, not because it will give the "inside scoop" about Jesus' childhood, but because as we react (most likely with horror) to the story it tells, it prods us to ask ourselves, "If this isn't how we imagine Jesus' childhood, then how would we imagine it?"

Next week there will be a business meeting during the Sunday school hour, and so we'll resume our study the week after that with an overview of Mark's Gospel.

Sunday School August 31st 2008

Today in Dr. McGrath's class we continued considering the topic of what the Bible is. The discussion ranged from the topic of whether God still speaks today, and if so what the implications might be for our understanding of the canon, to the importance of historical events for the Christian faith.

Next time, we'll be looking at Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2, which provide an excellent example both of historical difficulties and of the relevance of cultural background to making sense of the Bible. Some of Dr. McGrath's class notes from a course on the historical figure of Jesus that he teaches at Butler University can be found online, and the ones about the infancy narratives are relevant to next Sunday's topic.

If we move at our usual slow pace, we'll still be talking about them at Christmas time, making the topic seasonal as well!