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Vanderbilt
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Department of Religious Studies, College of Arts and Science |
Schedule | Requirements | Books | Faculty
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RLST 210 Interpreting
the Gospels: Mark
Schedule
| Requirements | Books
| Faculty
Course
Description
Focusing on the Gospel of Mark, this class
will examine how, through the centuries and today,
Christian believers have interpreted and interpret this gospel as Scripture—that
is, as a text with a teaching for or about their
lives in specific religious, socio-economic, and cultural
contexts. As we successively read different parts of the gospel, we will
first consider the teachings of this text for believers
today as members of the class can formulate it, and in
samples of present day sermons from mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic
North American churches, African-American churches, feminist circles, and
“Third World” churches. Then we will compare how these teachings compare
with other interpretations of Mark: in Matthew and Luke (the earliest recorded
interpretation of Mark!); in the history of the church (using Ancient Christian
Commentary on Scripture, Vol II, Mark); and in recent scholarly interpretations.
The first and essential requirement for this class is active participation in seminar-like discussions, including several short oral presentations (of your interpretations of texts for believers today; of your analyses of one or another interpretation); next, three short papers; and a concluding term paper (written in several stages during the last month of the term).