An introduction to the four Gospels in their social, historical and theological settings. Using a “socio-literary” approach, we will study the Gospels within a two-dimensional framework, both centred on what the early Christians called the “gospel” or “Kerygma.” One dimension has to do with social history, the origin and development of Christianity as a distinct social entity, from its foundations in the ministry of Jesus and the Easter experience, through its emergence as a Jewish renewal movement, and on to its development into a separate, largely Gentile, institutionalized religion. The second dimension has to do with literature, the process by which the Gospels came to be written, their literary form and texture, and their character as narrative versions of the “gospel.”
