2008 Westar Summer Institute
Audio CDs
Mary and Judas
Ancient Gospels from the Egyptian Desert
6 hours, 6 CD set, retail $70.00*
There are some 34 gospels known to have been written from the late first through the end of the second century. This diversity illustrates the following datum: in the first century there existed neither one way of understanding Jesus nor one way of being his follower. In the earliest extant sources (Paul, around 50C.E.) diversity is the rule rather than the exception. Even the canonical gospels do not agree on the details of Jesus' public career or the nature of his person. This course begins with that diversity and situates two of the most famous of the “unorthodox” gospels within the formative period of early Christianity. The Gospels of Mary and Judas, attributed to two of Jesus’ most famous (and infamous) disciples, paint portraits of Jesus that seem shockingly at odds with the canonical gospels. Yet the issues they raise are strikingly contemporary: What was the real purpose of Jesus’ death? How could a God of love desire the suffering and death of his son? How should Jesus be viewed? What role should women play in the church? These two gospels lead us right into the center of the debates about the nature of Christianity.
Charles W. Hedrick, Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at Missouri State University, was a member of the UNESCO team that reconstructed and conserved the Nag Hammadi Codices. More
Between the Monster and the Saint
Thoughts on the Human Condition
5 hours, 5 CD set, retail $58.50*
The writer Margaret Drabble says that the gloomy poet Philip Larkin cheers us up because he reconciles us to our ills by the scrupulous way in which he notices them. The same could be said of religion, and one way to use it is to observe how it notices and responds creatively to the tensions in the human condition. Hugh Walpole said that the world was a comedy for those who think, a tragedy for those who feel: any scrupulous noticing of the ills of the world must hold both ends of that polarity. One of the consolations of literature is the way it transmutes the tragic-comedy of life into art, by noticing it. The same can be said of existential religion. Richard Holloway will examine the human predicament, looking honestly at the fact that we are the most dangerous animal on the planet, yet the only one equipped with the spiritual resources both to understand and respond to the crisis we ourselves have created.
Richard Holloway was Bishop of Edinburgh and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church till 2000. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he is the author of twenty-seven books, including How to Read the Bible (2006) and Doubts and Loves (2001).
The American Bible
A Mirror Of Cultural Values
6 hours, 6 CD set, retail $70.00*
Bob Funk claimed that the Bible is like a fester in the American tradition because it has not been allowed to speak for itself. Rather, fundamentalists interpret the Bible in light of a Baconian, rationalist worldview, and liberals read it in light of post-Darwinian, scientific empiricism. Both fundamentalists and liberals exploit it to support extra-biblical theological assumptions and cultural values.
Lane McGaughy will survey the ways the Bible has functioned in the American tradition, showing how it has served as a weapon for protagonists in the culture wars that are increasingly polarizing Americans. He will ask how the Puritans, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and others interacted with the Bible and discuss the ways in which Moses and Jesus have been turned into American superheroes. The course will conclude by exploring the authority of the Bible in a pluralistic culture.
Lane McGaughy is the Atkinson Professor Emeritus of Religious & Ethical Studies at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. He currently serves as chair of the Boards of Directors of Westar Institute and Polebridge Press.
*Westar members get a 20% off the retail price on all Westar Audio Videos