Jesus Seminar Comes to Elizabethton

I have just confirmed with Westar that we will host a Jesus Seminar on the Road September 12-13. Charles Hedrick and Hal Taussig will present, Competing Early Christian Voices: the Contest for Authority at First Pres., Elizabethton. This is a description of the program they did in Pennsylvania:

In the beginning, orthodoxy was but one of many diverse movements tracing their origins in some way to Jesus of Nazareth. Initially these groups used a Greek form of the Hebrew Bible as their scripture, but that collection proved inadequate to their needs. So they eventually reduced their new visions of faith to writing. Beginning in the fourth century, some self-proclaimed orthodox representatives selected certain religious texts to serve their communities, texts which, centuries later, would become “divinely inspired scripture.” Other texts, from movements competing with orthodoxy, they libeled as “heretical,” or “not genuine.”

The workshop will look at some of the so-called “heretical” texts and competing religious visions that survived from that early period, such as Thunder, Perfect Mind; The Gospel of Thomas; The Treatise on the Resurrection; The Gospel of Mary; The Aprocryphon of John; The Gospel of Judas; The Testimony of Truth; and The Apocalypse of Peter.

So, put it on your calendar! Check out some of the other JSORs this Fall.