An Ancient Murder Mystery: The Death of Jesus from the Gospels to Mel Gibson

When Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion of the Christ" was released in 2004, it provoked a tremendous amount of public debate and divided Christians (Catholics and Protestants of all sorts) and Jews (Orthodox, Conservative, Liberal and Reform) in every possible combination. Although the virulence of the discussions may have given us the impression that this was a new issue, in reality the question of the Jews' role and involvement in Jesus' death has been disputed for almost two thousand years. The claim that the Jews are responsible for Christ's death is the subject of this class and we will study its history from the gospels to today using textual sources (historical, religious and literary works) and the visual arts (paintings and movies). But this class is not about who did or did not kill Jesus, nor is it about judging people's positions on the issue. Rather it is about the power of a story to travel through time and space, to being told and retold in different versions and with different purposes, and to affect the real lives of men and women.
First-Year Seminar; Course is for first-year, non-transfer students only.

Course Attributes: AS HUM; AS SC; FA HUM; AR HUM; EN H

An Ancient Murder Mystery: The Death of Jesus from the Gospels to Mel Gibson

HISTORY 1021

Section 01