Ryan ChartrandCal Poly’s philosophy department will offer a new religious studies course, RELS 205X, Jesus, this spring quarter.
The course will focus on the understanding of Jesus as a person and explore his life in an educational and historical outlook.
“The origin of the class is when you look at Jesus, he is probably the most talked about person on campus,” said Stephen Lloyd-Moffett, assistant professor and program advisor for the religious studies program. “I think there is a hunger for students to learn about Jesus in an environment where the instructor does not have an agenda.”
The class will address different topics about Jesus based on an academic outlook, Lloyd-Moffett said.
“It’s going to be a historical and academic approach, but we will spend a great deal of time in the Bible because that is our best source,” Lloyd-Moffett said. “I don’t want to have a pro- or anti-Christian environment.”
The class is open to all students and requires no prerequisites or previous knowledge of the subject.
The class will focus on the effects Jesus had in Christianity and other religions.
“We will spend most of our time on Jesus in Christianity,” Lloyd-Moffett said. “But we are also going to spend some time on the Hebrew Bible and we are going to look at some of the modern perspectives such as Jesus in Islam, Jesus in Bahá’¡ and Jesus in film.”
The objective of the class is for students to see Jesus in a different light than what they may already know from their own religions, business junior Craig Weitzel said.
“Christianity is not the only religion that recognizes Jesus as a person,” Weitzel said. “Islam recognizes Jesus as a prophet and I believe there are even some Eastern religions that recognize Jesus. I am hoping to see if there is some kind of angle on Jesus that I haven’t heard of before, and I think that is the objective of the class. As a Christian, I get one lens of Jesus in my particular practice, but there may be other angles of Jesus as a person that other religions recognize that might give me a new perspective on Jesus.”
Lloyd-Moffett said that he predicts the course will not be as demanding as some of the other religious studies courses. However, it may challenge some beliefs.
“I hope the class will be well-received, but I am almost positive that the class will take some views of Jesus that are not expressed normally in Christianity,” Weitzel said.
“We also may discuss the way Jesus has been depicted over the years. When many people think of Jesus, they see a white guy with a nice, trimmed beard with brown hair and blue eyes, when he came from an area where everyone was of Middle Eastern and Judaic descent. Chances are he didn’t look like that. So, maybe the class will discuss the way Jesus is physically depicted and why our society shows Jesus as a white guy.”
By addressing these topics about Jesus, Lloyd-Moffett said students will have the opportunity to further develop and cultivate their faith.
“We can make faith grow by studying it in an academic way,” Lloyd-Moffett said. “Students may find that the class will challenge their faith in a productive way not a destructive way.”
Rels 205X, Jesus, will be offered on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6 to 8 p.m., and will accommodate approximately 200 students.