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Distance learning
Illustration: Eamonn Bonner
Boston College’s Center for Christian-Jewish Learning is offering a self-paced online tutorial that explores the similarities and differences in the evangelists’ portrayals of the Passion of Jesus. Entitled “The Death of Jesus: Four Gospel Accounts,” the program was developed by the center’s executive director, Philip Cunningham, in conjunction with C21 Online.
“The story of the Passion has been one of the neuralgic, violence-provoking aspects of the relationship between Christians and Jews,” said Cunningham in an interview. For that reason, he said, “providing sound Catholic biblical awareness of the text is something we strive for” in support of the center’s mission of promoting understanding between Christians and Jews. The free tutorial can be accessed at www.bc.edu/passiontutorial.
The tutorial examines accounts of the death of Jesus as presented by Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John, taking participants through the story of Jesus’ final hours in five scenes that appear in all four Gospels: the arrest in the garden; Jesus before the high priests; Jesus before the Roman prefect; the execution; and the burial. The program provides a timeline of the Gospels’ production, as well as discussions of source texts, traditions, and social and political contexts.
According to Cunningham, who is also a professor of theology, the tutorial grew out of a series of lectures on the Passion accounts that he gave at several Boston-area parishes, and he provides the audio narration in the online version. The program uses the same e-learning system, WebCT, used by many BC faculty to enhance the classroom experience.
The tutorial debuted on March 31, during Lent, and reflects a desire on the part of the center and C21 Online to expand the use of distance-learning tools. The site has received more than 400 visitors to date, and nearly a thousand visits in all. A similar tutorial about the infancy narratives in the Gospels is in the planning stage. “It’s a simpler task,” said Cunningham, because there are only two Gospels—Matthew and Luke—that present Jesus’ infancy.
The Center for Christian-Jewish Learning was established in 2000. The center facilitates research, offers courses, maintains a website (www.bc.edu/cjl), and sponsors lectures, programs, and conferences.
Read more by Tim Czerwienski
