Announcement List for the Virginia Atheists & Agnostics

[Kenneth Hawes <>]

Greetings VAAers,

The Center for Christian Study is having a biweekly reading group on the historical Jesus and they are inviting VAA members to participate. The first meeting is today at 3:30pm and there will be a meeting every other Friday at that time. I think that this is something which is relevant to the interests of many atheists and agnostics, and I hope that some of you will attend!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bill Wilder <>
Date: Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 4:10 PM
Subject: FW: Historical Jesus Group - starts this Friday 9/6 3:30 at the Study Center
To: Victoria Gabriele <>, Kenneth Hawes <>

Hello, Kenneth and Victoria.

I hope you both got my invitation to the Faith and Science group. Do you think folks in VAA might be interested in the Center’s Historical Jesus reading group as well? If so, feel free to pass along the description below. We would love to have students from your group join us for any of our discussions.

Hope your semester is off to a good start.

Bill



------ Forwarded Message
From: "Fitz-John S. Green" <>
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2013 14:46:07 -0400
To: Bill Wilder <>, Robert Newman <>, Caitlin Montgomery <>, John Shelton <>, leah coates <>, Ryan Bates <>, Rebekah McCallum <>
Subject: Historical Jesus Group - starts this Friday 9/6 3:30 at the Study Center

Hello all!  The Study Center's Historical Jesus reading group is back - and I hope you'll be part of it.  We'll meet every other week, starting this Friday, in the front room of the Study Center from 3:30-4:30.  

For the first meeting, let's discuss the Historical Jesus book that made waves this summer: Reza Aslan's "Zealot."  If you haven't seen it yet, watch this (so-called) interview that set the whole internet abuzz last month:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt1cOnNrY5s  

Then see two different responses to the interview:  http://www.theamericanconservative.com/jacobs/more-about-reza-aslans-zealot-than-i-wanted-to-write-or-that-you-want-to-read-probably/    

 http://thinkchristian.net/embracing-a-zealous-jesus 

Such a lively interview will, no doubt, lead to lively discussion!  Please invite others to join us too.  

Peace,

Fitz


P.S. For other meetings this semester, we'll use as our jumping off point the book The Historical Jesus: Five Views.  Each chapter presents the method and main conclusion of a historical Jesus scholar, then offers responses and critiques from other scholars.  The first chapter is by Robert Price, a "Jesus Myther" who claims that no such person ever even existed!  The last chapter is by an evangelical scholar, Darrell Bock, and there are a range of views in between.  

We'll spend part of our time each session discussing a chapter from the book, and the other part of the time we'll look together at some first-hand "evidence" - a passage from the gospels that is central to the arguments made in the book chapter - and evaluate how it is used by historians and/or by the church.  

If extra reading outside of class seems too much still consider coming.  We'll make it easy to jump in no matter what.


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F I T Z  G R E E N 

D I R E C T O R   of   E D U C A T I O N A L   M I N I S T R I E S

 

<http://www.studycenter.net>

 

128 CHANCELLOR STREET  CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA  22903

TEL: 434-817-1050   FAX: 434-817-1053  CELL: 434-218-2428 


------ End of Forwarded Message

--
Kenneth Hawes
University of Virginia 2014
BA Mathematics