Muhlenberg IJCU Sponsors Pre-Lent Workshop & Forum
The Muhlenberg College Institute of Jewish-Christian Understanding (IJCU) will present "Telling the Gospel Truth: The Challenges of Passion Presentations," a pre-Lent workshop.Wednesday, February 4, 2004 00:46 PM
The Muhlenberg College Institute of Jewish-Christian Understanding (IJCU) will present "Telling the Gospel Truth: The Challenges of Passion Presentations," a pre-Lent workshop, Tuesday, February 24, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., in Miller Forum, Moyer Hall. Registration deadline is January 23; registration fee is $45, or $50 with Continuing Education credit of .5 CEU (five contact hours). Continental breakfast and buffet lunch are included in the registration fee. For more information or to register, call the IJCU at 484-664-3470. Please note that this workshop has been rescheduled from January 24.
The interactive workshop will focus on the Passion narratives of the New Testament, keeping in mind the suffering of Jewish communities that were targeted for revenge after the Passion story had been told in traditional anti-Jewish form. The announced Ash Wednesday release of Mel Gibson' s film "The Passion of Christ" will give an extra boost during Lent to this story fraught with memory and meaning for both Jews and Christians.
Workshop leaders will be Mary C. Boys, SNJM, Ph.D., and Michael J. Cook, Ph.D. Boys is Skinner & McAlpin Professor of Practical Theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. She is the author of "Has God Only One Blessing? Judaism as a Source of Christian Self-Understanding" and co-director of the project Educating for Religious Particularism and Pluralism. Cook is professor of Intertestamental and Christian Literatures and holds the Sol and Arlene Bronstein Professorship in Judaeo-Christian Studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. He is the author of numerous articles in the field of Christian-Jewish relations and is a renowned speaker and teacher. Rabbi Cook has been featured in the video "Missionary Impossible" and has taught recently in the Lehigh Valley on several occasions. Both Boys and Cook were among a group of scholars who first read and responded to the script of Mel Gibson's film in the spring of 2003.
On the previous evening, Monday, February 23, Boys and Cook will offer a free public forum, "Portrayals of the Passion, and What's the Fuss over Mel Gibson's New Movie?" The forum will begin at 7 p.m. in the Egner Memorial Chapel, Muhlenberg College. The forum will include discussion of the following questions: What has been the significance for Jews and Christians when the story is told of Jesus' Passion - the suffering he underwent in the last day of his life? Why is it such a sensitive issue? What are the challenges and pitfalls of trying to make a film of this story? Will Mel Gibson's project undo decades of Jewish-Christian reconciliation? For more information about the forum, call the IJCU, 484-664-3470.
