Jesus

Who was, and is, Jesus? Who decides? What can we know about the historical Jesus and who he became? In this course, we will begin with the earliest accounts of Jesus as recounted in the canonical gospels and outside it (e.g., the Gospel of Judas). Then we will turn to the many ways that later generations of Christians (both heretical and orthodox) and non-Christians depicted Jesus. We will read canonical and non-canonical Christian texts, Jewish accounts of Jesus, and attend to differences as Christianity spread both westward toward Ireland and eastward through the Silk Road toward China.