The History of the Bible: Explore 2,000 Years of Biblical Interpretation and Cultural Impact
Length: 10 hours and 3 minutes
You are invited to journey back 2,000 years to the very start of Christianity and track 450 years of its fascinating early development.
In Christian Origins 101, you will explore the rich history, early leadership, and groundbreaking theology, of early Christianity. Through 30 erudite lectures, you will focus on six major themes: the early Church's relationship with its Jewish heritage, the Gnostic movement, Christianity and the Roman Empire, the early Church and women, debates about Jesus' divinity in the fourth century, and debates about Jesus' humanity in the fifth century. Each of these themes served as a locus for significant debates about the nature of Christian beliefs and practices.
In exploring the fundamental questions that challenged Christianity from the Apostolic Age to the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD, you will gain a deep understanding of the roots of the beliefs Christians hold dear. By learning about Christianity's remarkable origins and development, you will gain a richer understanding of the Church today.
You will find these lectures extraordinarily well taught, highly informative and enjoyable.
01 Introduction: The Importance of Interpretation
02 The Beginnings of Christian Interpretation: The Jewish Matrix, Part 1
03 The Beginnings of Christian Interpretation: The Jewish Matrix, Part 2
04 The Beginnings of Christian Interpretation: The Jewish Matrix, Part 3
05 Christ Is the Key: Prophetic Interpretation of the Old Testament
06 A Shadow of What Is To Come: Typological Interpretation
07 Introduction to Allegory
08 The Logic of Allegory
09 Allegory as Spiritual Practice
10 The Problems with Allegory and Its Boundaries
11 The Rise of the Literal Sense
12 Sola Scriptura
13 Perspicuity and Fragmentation
14 The Dawn of Modernity
15 Baruch Spinoza
16 Modern Interpretation
17 The Quest for the Historical Jesus
18 Responses to Enlightenment Exegesis
19 Fundamentalism and the Bible
20 Fundamentalist Exegesis
21 Modern Catholics and the Bible