Next year I have been given the opportunity to design and teach a course in the Winter and Spring quarters at UCLA. Last year I was given the same opportunity and designed a course titled: Paul, the New Testament, and Ancient Letter Writing. While the course was extremely enjoyable and the students learned a lot, I have decided to design two new courses this year. One of the courses will be called The Historical Context of the Earliest Christian Texts. In this course I plan to have the students examine questions such as what is the purpose of the text, what can we determine about the author, the community to which it was written, and many other important aspects of each text.
I am seeking input on which texts I should use. The problem is that the course meets only once per week and will have 9 meetings for which a text can be assigned. Thus with said limitations, here are my initial thoughts.
1. Paul – 1 Thessalonians, Galatians
2. Paul – Romans
3. Mark, Matthew
4. John
5. Acts
6. Didache
7. Ignatius (not sure which letter yet)
8. Revelation
9. Undecided - perhaps The Gopsel of Thomas and another shorter text
Which texts would you include? The target audience is intelligent, hard working, undergraduate students who will have drastically different levels of previous experience with these texts, many of them will have never opened a Bible. I look forward toyour input.
July 12, 2009 at 9:07 pm
I would include James as another example of the diversity of early Christian texts. I would want to do Luke and Acts together, but that’s a lot of reading for undergrads in one week. What about a portion of 1 Clement?
As for a textbook, I think Achtemeier/Green/Thompson would be a good option for you. It’s written by middle-of-the-road evangelicals, but is sufficiently rooted in historical-critical work to be perfectly acceptable for a secular setting. Certainly less apologetically tainted than Richards for your previous class! It is laid out very clearly and written well.
July 13, 2009 at 11:10 pm
You might want to look at E. Earle Ellis’s The Making of the New Testament Documents. It’s a very interesting book and addresses a lot of the issues you talk about. It even has a sizable section on Baur, although he doesn’t treat him as generously as you’d hope.
It’s a Brill book, but just reprinted last month by SBL in paperback (although still overpriced).