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Jesus Seminar on the Road returning with ‘Christian Beginnings Beyond the Canon’

The Jesus Seminar on the Road returns to Plymouth Friday evening and Saturday, Oct. 10-11, with “Other Voices: A Look at Christian Beginnings Beyond the Canon,” led by Stephen J. Patterson and Shelly Matthews.

The Jesus Seminar has always cast a broad net, looking not only to the New Testament, but to the wider variety of texts and traditions that made up the diversity of earliest Christianity. In the next phase of its work, the Jesus Seminar is now asking what this diversity of materials might tell us about the diverse origins of Christianity. In this seminar, Shelly Matthews and Stephen Patterson will introduce participants to the fascinating world of Christianity “beyond the canon.”

Shelly Matthews is an Associate Professor of Religion at Furman University. She’s the author of First Converts (2001) and the co-editor with E. Leigh Gibson of Violence in the New Testament (2004). She’s currently working on a manuscript on violence in the book of Acts, tentatively titled Perfect Martyr: The Stoning of Stephen and the Making of Gentile Christianity in Acts. The co-chair of the Society of Biblical Literature Program Unit on Violence and Representations of Violence among Jews and Christians in Antiquity, Matthews also chairs the New Testament Section for the Southeast Regional Conference on the Study of Religion.

Shelly received her Th.D. from Harvard Divinity School, her M.Div. from Boston University School of Theology and a B.A. from the University of North Dakota. She’s been a Fellow of the Jesus Seminar since 2006 and is a Joint Member of the Society of Biblical Literature and the American Academy of Religion, as well as the North American Patristics Society. She’s an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church.

Stephen Patterson is Professor of New Testament at Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, where he’s taught since 1988. He grew up the child of a pastor and school teacher in rural South Dakota. He holds a B.A. from Yankton College in South Dakota and graduate degrees from Harvard University and the Claremont Graduate School, where he received a Ph.D. in New Testament in 1988. In 1986, he was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Heidelberg in Germany.

Patterson specializes in study of the historical Jesus, Christian origins and the Gospel of Thomas, an early Christian gospel not found in the New Testament. Most recently he’s written about the theological significance of the newest phase in the quest for the historical Jesus.

He’s published several books including Beyond the Passion: Rethinking the Death and Life of Jesus (2004); The God of Jesus: The Historical Jesus and the Search for God (Trinity, 1998); The Fifth Gospel: The Gospel of Thomas Comes of Age (Trinity, 1998) with J.M. Robinson and H.M. Bethge; The Search for Jesus (Biblical Archaeology Society, 1994), with Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan; The Gospel of Thomas and Jesus (Polebridge, 1993); and The Q-Thomas Reader (Polebridge, 1990) with Marvin W. Meyer, Michael G. Steinhauser and John S. Kloppenborg.

He’s Chair of the Steering Committee of The Jesus Seminar on Christian Origins, a member of The Society of Biblical Literature and Contributing Editor of The Bible Review.

The seminar will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and continue from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Registration is $60. Additional family members are $40. Registration will be available at the door.

Single sessions are: Friday evening lecture, $15; Saturday morning workshop, $25; Saturday afternoon workshop, $25.

For descriptions of the lecture and workshops, go to www.westarinstitute.org, scroll down to “Jesus Seminars on the Road” and click on “Minneapolis.”

For questions or more information, contact Mark Larson, marklarson@izoom.net or 763/241-7974.