The Formative Years of Christianity and Judaism
The Institute of Hebraic Studies is pleased to announce our latest class offering, The Formative Years of Christianity and Judaism. This class will present an in-depth look at the formative years of both religions, should answer many questions, allow us to continue to engage in the ongoing dialogue between Judaism and Christianity and find the common ground.
Those of us who are engaged in the study of Judaism and Christianity can, at times, be overwhelmed by everything there is to learn and to digest. One area in which most of us know very little is the writings of the Apostolic Fathers and what happens in history right after the “beginnings” of Christianity and Judaism. For Christianity, this period which is really where Christianity as we know it today was formed, is the called the Apostolic period, and for Judaism, it’s the beginning of the Gaonic period.
We will watch two concurrent lecture series, one on the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, featuring a prominent author and university professor, and the second on Jewish history, featuring an award-winning scholar from the Hebrew University Each lecture will be followed by class discussion. Lecture topics will include doctrinal problems in the Early Church, letters of prominent Church Fathers, and early persecution, Jewish life before and during Islam, prominent figures in early Jewish history, such as Saadia Goan and Maimonides, the early Spanish Jewish community, Jewish life in Christian Europe and the Crusades.
This class is sure to change one’s perception of both religions in a way that very few have had an opportunity to gain in their personal journey. We hope you will join us.
Classes begins on Tuesday, September 11, 2007, 7-9 pm., at the Round Rock address.
Tuition: $10/class.