Pagels teaches Jesus

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: Jesus, the revised edition: Freshman seminar explores 2,000 years of interpretations (Jamie Saxon).

"Who Was — Or Is — Jesus?," taught by Elaine Pagels, the Harrington Spear Paine Foundation Professor of Religion, uses a variety of sources to examine the life of Jesus from the earliest, ancient primary sources about Jesus — the "gospel" accounts, including the four accounts of Jesus' life that "made the cut" into the New Testament, to contemporary Christian and non-Christian interpretations such as Dennis Covington's "Salvation on Sand Mountain," Victor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning" and E.P. Sanders' "The Historical Figure of Jesus."

This is the first time Pagels has taught this seminar. "I chose this topic because I would have loved to have this course when I was in college — but there was nothing like it! [It] starts by asking what we know about Jesus historically, and then goes into art, music, poems, film — an enormous range from which to choose," she said.

Readings draw from philosophy to poetry and literature — Friedrich Nietzsche, Langston Hughes, Leo Tolstoy, and more. Students also view works of art such as Chagall's crucifixion paintings and listen to recordings such as John Coltrane's studio album "A Love Supreme."