LECTURES

LECTURE 1 Why Not "The Historical Jesus"?

LECTURE 2 The Starting Point-The Resurrection Experience

LECTURE 3 The Matrix-Symbolic World of Greek and Jew

LECTURE 4 Parallels-Stories of Greek and Jewish Heroes

LECTURE 5 The Context-Jesus in the Memory of the Church

LECTURE 6 Earliest Stages-Paul and the Oral Tradition

LECTURE 7 Why Compose Gospels?

LECTURE 8 The Synoptic Problem and Its Solutions

LECTURE 9 Gospel of Mark-Apocalyptic and Irony

LECTURE 10 Gospel of Mark-Good News in Mystery

LECTURE 11 Gospel of Mark-Teacher and Disciples

LECTURE 12 Gospel of Mark-Passion and Death

LECTURE 13 Gospel of Matthew-Synagogue Down the Street.

LECTURE 14 Gospel of Matthew-The Messiah of lsrael

LECTURE 15 Gospel of Matthew-Jesus and Torah

LECTURE 16 Gospel of Matthew-Teacher and Lord

LECTURE 17 Luke-Acts- The Prophetic Gospel

LECTURE 18 Gospel of Luke-Gad's Prophet

LECTURE 19 Gospel of Luke-The Prophet and the People

LECTURE 20 Acts of the Apostles-The Prophet's Movement

LECTURE 21 Gospel of John-Context of Conflict

LECTURE 22 Gospel of John-Jesus as the Man From Heaven

LECTURE 23  Gospel of John-Jesus as Obedient Son

LECTURE 24 Gospel of John-Witness to the Truth

LECTURE 25 In and Out-Canonical and Apocryphal Gospels

LECTURE 26 Young Jesus-The Infancy Gospel of James

LECTURE 27 Young Jesus-The Infancy Gospel of Thomas

LECTURE 28 Jewish Christian Narrative Gospels

LECTURE 29 Fragments of Narrative Gospels-Gospel of Peter

LECTURE 30 New Revelations-Gnostic Witnesses

LECTURE 31 Jesus in Word-The Coptic Gospel of Thomas

LECTURE 32   Jesus in Word-Two Gnostic Gospels

LECTURE 33 The Gnostic Good News-The Gospel of Truth

LECTURE 34 The Gnostic Good News-The Gospel of Philip

LECTURE 35 Jesus in and Through the Gospels

LECTURE 36 Learning Jesus in Past and Present

Scope:

Early Christianity was prolific in its production of Gospels-narratives that in one way or another have Jesus of Nazareth as their central character.

There are many more Gospels than the four included in the New Testament.

They are almost bewilderingly diverse in the way they portray Jesus.

The Gospels are fascinating literary compositions in their own right, and they raise puzzling questions about the figure they portray and about the religious movement, Christianity, that produced them.

What accounts for the diversity of images?

Is it possible to speak of a single Jesus when accounts about him are so various?

The most common approach to these questions is through history.

LECTURE 1 The Discoveries and Their Significance

LECTURE 2 The First Seven Scrolls

LECTURE 3 Opening and Reading the First Scroll.

LECTURE 4 The Historical Backdrop of Ancient Judaism

LECTURE 5 The Rise of the Jewish Sects

LECTURE 6 The Dead Sea Site of the Qumran Sect

LECTURE 7 The Emergence ofthe Rabbinic System

LECTURE 8 A Dead Sea Scroll from Medieval Cairo

LECTURE 9 Pesher Interpretation-Prophecy Read Anew

LECTURE 10 The War Scroll and Other Apocalyptic Texts

LECTURE 11 Biblical Manuscripts at Qumran

LECTURE 12 Alternative Views of Qumran and the Scrolls

LECTURE 13 Stops and Starts En Route to Publication

LECTURE 14 The Qumran Vision for a New Temple

LECTURE 15 Daily Life at Qumran

LECTURE 16 The Halakhic Letter-Rituals Define the Sect

LECTURE 17 The Qumran Biblical Canon

LECTURE 18 The Qumran Calendar

LECTURE 19 Jewish Scholars and Qumran Ritual Practices

LECTURE 20 Prayers, Hymns, and the Synagogue

LECTURE 21 Qumran Hebrew as an Anti-Language

LECTURE 22 The Enigma of the Copper Scroll

LECTURE 23 Connections to Christianity

LECTURE 24 Scroll Fragments and a New View of Judaism

Scope:

In 1947, the discovery of ancient documents in caves near the Dead Sea shook the world of biblical studies.

The Dead Sea Scrolls contain not only our oldest copies of the Bible but Jewish texts from the 3rd century
B.C.E. through 68 C.E. that provide an unprecedented view of Jewish history, culture, and religion from before and during the time of Jesus.

All told, 930 individual documents emerged from the caves of Qumran, located on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea; 230 of these are biblical manuscripts, representing every book of the Jewish Bible save Esther, with Isaiah, Psalms, and Deuteronomy the best represented.

These texts greatly enhance our knowledge of how the Bible was transmitted in that age, representing an intermediate phase between the period of their authorship in ancient Israel and the appearance of the great medieval codices.

Scope: This course instructs high school students in how to improve basic study skills and develop a genuine enthusiasm for learning.

The course covers a range of skills useful in any school subject: budgeting time, taking notes, annotating texts, writing papers, completing exams, and choosing the right career path after high school.

The first 10 lessons are primarily intended for the student; the last two speak also to parents.

Objectives: Upon completion of these lessons, you should be able to:

1. Explain what constitutes a positive philosophy of learning.
2. Explain and demonstrate the use of a Learning Journal.
3. Perform textbook annotation as a learning tool.
4. Employ several strategies for taking notes.
5. Compare and contrast formal and informal writing.
6. Perform jam writing as a warm-up exercise.
7. Identify ways to avoid exam anxiety.
8. Explain and perform the various stages in writing a formal essay.
9. Summarize and perform the various stages in writing a research
   paper.
10. Explain the key points in developing a master schedule.
11. Summarize several strategies that contribute to being a well-
    rounded high school student.
12. Know the primary ways to achieve academic success.

Scope:
The Bible contains many fme stories, ranging from the sagas of the ancient patriarchs to the parables of Jesus. Even people who do not regard it as a religious authority appreciate the Bible as a collection of ancient literature
that tells wonderful stories and as the source of many others. But the Bible as a book also has a story, one as fascinating in its way as any of the stories told within its pages.

This is a course about the world's most famous, most read, most debated, and sometimes, most detested book. How, when, and why did it enter the world? What has been the stages of its growth? In how many forms has it appeared? How has it exercised its influence?

Scope:
Just as knowledge of the Trojan War legend is necessary for understanding the Iliad, so too the Odyssey assumes that its audience knows how the war ended and what happened next. Lecture One of this course sketches out the events that took place between the two epics, and then considers two primary types of epic, kleos and nostos (or "return") epic. The lecture also looks at the opening lines of the Odyssey and discusses the effect of its complicated chronology and narrative structure.

Lecture Two introduces another key cultural concept, xenia (the "guest-host relationship") and explains its importance both for the Odyssey as a whole and for the first four books, which focus on Odysseus' son Telemachos, in particular.

In Lecture Three, we get our first view of Odysseus himself, and are introduced to key elements in his character, particularly his caution, his great rhetorical skill, and his longing for his own homecoming (nostos).

Lecture Four analyzes Odysseus' interactions with the Phaiakians, the people who will help him on his journey home. This lecture also covers the opening of Odysseus' great first-person narrative of his travels since leaving Troy, a narrative which continues for four full books of the Odyssey.

Lectures Five and Six continue our examination of that narrative, identifying and analyzing Odysseus' motivations in telling the story and its effect on his audiences both inside and outside the epic.

In Lecture Seven, we look closely at Odysseus' long-delayed return to Ithaka and his meeting there with the goddess Athena.

His reunion with his son Telemachos and its implications are the main focus of Lecture Eight, which also covers Odysseus' return to his palace in disguise as an old beggar.

Lecture Nine provides a close analysis of Odysseus' conversation with his wife Penelope, and considers the crucial critical question of whether Penelope recognizes this"beggar" as her husband. This lecture also explores the narrative significance of the scene in which Odysseus' old nurse, Eurykleia, recognizes him from a scar on his thigh.

In Lecture Ten we consider the scene of vengeance in which Odysseus kills the suitors who have been plaguing his wife Penelope, and in

Lecture Eleven we discuss the final reunion of Odysseus and Penelope and the end of the Odyssey.

J. Rufus Fears, Ph.D.
Professor of Classics, University of Oklahoma J. Rufus Fears is Professor of Classics at the University of Oklahoma, where he holds the G. T. and Libby Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty. He rose from Assistant Professor to Professor of History at Indiana University. From 1986 to 1990, he was Professor of Classics and Chairman of the Department of Classical Studies at Boston University.

Professor Fears holds the Ph.D. from Harvard University. He has been a Danforth Fellow, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, and a Harvard Prize Fellow. He has been a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, a Guggenheim Fellow, and twice a Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. His research has been supported by grants from the American Philosophical Society, the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the
Humanities, the Kerr Foundation, and the Zarrow Foundation. He was chosen as Indiana University's first Distinguished Faculty Research Lecturer. He is listed in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World.

Lecture 1: Introduction and Words & Music, Part I
Lecture 2: Introduction and Words & Music, Part II
Lecture 3:A Brief History ofVoca1 Expression in Music, Part I

Lecture 4:A Brief History ofVoca1 Expression in Music, Part II

Lecture 5:The Invention of Opera and Monteverdi's Orfeo, Part I

Lecture 6:The Invention of Opera and Monteverdi's Orfeo, Part II

Lecture 7:The Invention of Opera and Monteverdi's Orfeo, Part III

Lecture 8: The Invention of Opera and Monteverdi's Orfeo, Part IV
Lecture 9: The Growth of Opera, the Development of Italian
Opera Seria, and Mozart's Idomeneo, Part I
Lecture 10: The Growth of Opera, the Development of Italian
Lecture 11: Opera Seria, and Mozart's Idomeneo, Part II
The Growth of Opera, the Development of Italian
Opera Seria, and Mozart's ldomeneo, Part ill
Lecture 12:The Growth of Opera, the Development of Italian
Opera Seria, and Mozart's ldomeneo, Part IV
Lecture 13:The Rise of Opera Buffa and Mozart's
The Marriage of Figaro, Part I
Lecture 14:The Rise of Opera Buffa and Mozart's
The Marriage of Figaro, Part II
Lecture 15: The Rise of Opera Buffa and Mozart's
The Marriage of Figaro, Part III
Lecture 16: The Rise of Opera Buffa and Mozart's
The Marriage of Figaro, Part IV

Lecture 17: The Bel Canto Style and Rossini's The Barber
of Seoille, Part I
Lecture 18: The Bel Canto Style and Rossini's The Barber
of Seville, Part II
Lecture 19: Verdi and Otello, Part II
Lecture 20: Verdi and Otello, Part II
Lecture 21:Verdi and Otello, Part III
Lecture 22: Verdi and Otello, Part IV
Lecture 23: French Opera, Part I
Lecture 24: French Opera, Part II

Lecture 25: German Opera Comes of Age
Lecture 26: Richard Wagner and Tristan und Isolde, Part I
Lecture 27: Richard Wagner and Tristan und Isolde, Part II
Lecture 28: Late Romantic German Opera: Richard Strauss
and Salome
Lecture 29: Russian Opera, Part I
Lecture 30: Russian Opera, Part II
Lecture 31: Verismo, Puccini, and Tasca, Part I
Lecture 32: Verismo, Puccini, and Tosca, Part II