WINTER SESSIONS 2024
Thursdays January 25 – March 21
“UNDERSTANDING THE NEW TESTAMENT”
A Great Course Lecture Series
10:30am-12:30pm in Sponsler Hall
The New Testament is a fascinating book—the canonical root of Christian history and theology. Yet the book is also a paradox, because this single “book” is comprised of 27 different books by more than a dozen authors, each of whom has a different perspective and is responding to a different set of historical circumstances. How do you reconcile this diversity of voices into a single, unified belief system? And should you even try? For historians, the diversity of authors is not a challenge to be reckoned with, but rather an exciting opportunity. In the New Testament, we have 27 primary sources that offer a doorway to the captivating history of the early Christian communities. In these books, you can discover how:
Christian practices developed;
Conflicts of belief were debated and addressed;
The institution of the Church evolved; and
A man named Jesus of Nazareth was transformed into the Messiah.
Join Professor David Brakke, an award-winning Professor of History at The Ohio State University, for Understanding the New Testament. In these 24 eye-opening lectures, he takes you behind the scenes to study not only the text of the New Testament, but also the authors and the world in which it was created. You will explore Jewish lives under Roman occupation, reflect on the apocalyptic mood of the first and second centuries A.D., and witness the early Christians’ evangelism beyond the Jewish communities.
Join us on Thursdays!
Each week we watch two 30 minute videos with lunch in between.
WANT TO MAKE A LUNCH FOR OUR GROUP?
Contact Coleman
Fall Session: Thursday, September 14 – Thursday, November 16
Beyond Christianity After Religion
Join us for this 6 week session as we discuss Diana Butler Bass’ book:
“Christianity After Religion”
This session will include Essays and Reflections from the book and other sources, plus Podcast Video presentations from Diana Butler Bass.
Purchase book here:
Christianity After Religion
June 8: Exploring UCC History, Polity, and Theology
Join us we watch a few short videos exploring how the UCC thinks, proclaims, works, equips, and engages each part of the denomination to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world.
¨ The Beginnings of the United Church of Christ: Our Roots in Four Traditions .
¨ A Church of Firsts: A Historic and Ongoing Commitment to Joining Faith and Action
¨ More Than Just Four Traditions: Exploring Hidden Histories in the United Church of Christ
¨ UCC Statement of Faith.
June 15: Environmental justice~ Climate Concerns
Readings and Reflections. Bill Moyer- Wendall Berry interview.
¨ Introducing our UCC Climate Cards.
Winter Sessions 2023
January 26 – February 16
HOMEBREWED CHRISTIANITY: EXPERIENCING GOD
Join us for this 4-week class. It will be a robust exploration with over 11 different speakers of how the tools of science, philosophy, and theology help us discern meaning from divine encounters.
We’ll discuss God-experiences as mediated through faith communities, the mind, nature, the Bible, psychedelics, and more. And we’ll do all this with an eye towards the future, exploring the range of possibilities for how a lived-theology could express itself in the world.
Advent 2022
Homebrewed Christianity
John Dominic Crossan on The First Christmas:
The four Thursdays in Advent we will meet at 10:30am and watch pre-recorded video discussions with John Dominic Crossan and host Tripp Fuller from Homebrewed Christianity. They also take questions from viewers who emailed in questions and watched the live broadcast.
It is recommended if you are planning on attending the class to purchase the book that is being discussed:
The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Birth
by Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan—
Crossan and Borg help us see the real Christmas story buried in the familiar Bible accounts. Basing their interpretations on the two nativity narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, they focus on the literal story—the inner truth rather than the historical facts—to offer a clear and uplifting message of hope and peace. readers get a fresh, deep, and new understanding of the nativity story, enabling us to better appreciate the powerful message of the Gospels.
Summer/Fall Sessions ~ Thursdays, August 4 to November 17
10:30am – 12:30am in Sponsler Hall
History of Christianity (Great Course Lecture Series)
Christianity is the largest and most global religious tradition in history and has remained at or near the center of Western moral debate and conceptions of human identity, just action, and ultimate meaning. It has shaped history and responded to history, showing an extraordinary adaptability within greatly differing cultures. Its practice and influence appears in every land and every language, and one-third of humanity now affiliates in some way with Christianity.
How did this happen? How did a persecuted sect in 1st-century Palestine rise to command such a massive influence on human culture, imagination, and spirit? How did Christianity weather the first stages of its historical development and attain its fundamental and enduring cultural role? Speaking incisively to all of this, The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation tells the phenomenal story of Christianity’s first 1,500 years, in all its remarkable diversity and complex dimension.
We will watch two 30-minute lectures each week beginning at 10:30am.
Discussion with light lunch in between videos.
CSE ONLINE OPTIONS:
For those who prefer, we use a live online forum via Zoom for you to join those of us in Sponsler Hall.
Contact Coleman at cntodd60@gmail.com to be put on class zoom link each week.
CSE SPRING SESSIONS 2022
Six Thursdays: May 5 – June 9
FROM JESUS TO CHRIST: THE FIRST CHRISTIANS
FRONTLINE presents the epic story of the rise of Christianity. Drawing upon new and sometimes controversial historical evidence, the series transports the viewer back two thousand years to the time and place where Jesus of Nazareth once lived and preached and challenges familiar assumptions and conventional notions about the origins of Christianity. Drawing upon historical evidence, the series challenges familiar assumptions and conventional notions about Christian origins. Archaeological finds have yielded new understandings of Jesus’ class and social status; fresh interpretations have transformed earlier ideas about the identity of the early Christians and their communities.
Through engaging on-camera interviews with twelve scholars–New Testament theologians, archaeologists, and historians–the series presents their contributions to this intellectual revolution. The scholars together represent a range of viewpoints and diversity of faiths and a shared commitment to bring new ways of thinking about Christianity to a public audience.
For this six week program each week we will watch the four-hour Frontline program in segments.
Includes supplemental maps-essays and other resources.
Beginning at 10:30am ~ light lunch in between sections
CSE ONLINE OPTIONS
For those who do prefer to remain at home on Thursdays we use a live online forum via Zoom
for you to join those of us in Sponsler Hall.
Contact Coleman at cntodd60@gmail.com to be put on class zoom link each week.
ARCHIVES
CSE WINTER-SPRING SESSIONS 2022
Thursdays 10:30am – 12:30am . . .January 20 – April 7
Sponsler Hall
Jesus and his Jewish Influences
Plan to join us for this “Great Course” video-discussion series.
For anyone interested in understanding the profound effect Jesus had on the world, it’s important to realize that his actions and teachings didn’t emerge from a vacuum. Rather, they were the product of a fascinating dialogue with—and reaction to—the traditions, cultures, and historical developments of ancient Jewish beliefs. In fact, early Judaism and Jesus are two subjects so inextricably linked that one cannot arrive at a true understanding of Jesus without understanding the time in which he lived and taught.
Follow an acclaimed archaeologist to unearth the roots of Jesus’s actions and teachings within the traditions of early Judaism. This fascinating course approaches the subject from a historical, rather than scriptural, perspective; one rooted in ancient texts and archaeological discoveries. Discover hidden insights into how the tumultuous events of Jewish history shaped an individual whose legacy endures to this day.
We will watch two 30 minute lectures each week beginning at 10:30am.
Discussion and light lunch in between videos
CSE FALL SESSION
Six Weeks! October 14-November 18
THE APOCALYPSE:
CONTROVERSIES AND MEANING IN WESTERN HISTORY
CSE 2021 SUMMER SESSION
August 5 – September 23
Book Study: “On The Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old”
by Parker Palmer
From beloved and bestselling author Parker J. Palmer comes a beautiful book of reflections on what we can learn as we move closer to “the brink of everything.” Drawing on eight decades of life — and his career as a writer, teacher, and activist — Palmer explores the questions age raises and the promises it holds.
“Old,” he writes, “is just another word for nothing left to lose, a time to dive deep into life, not withdraw to the shallows.” But this book is not for elders only. It was written to encourage adults of all ages to explore the way their lives are unfolding. It’s not a how-to-do-it book on aging, but a set of meditations in prose and poetry that turn the prism on the meaning(s) of one’s life, refracting new light at every turn. From beginning to end, the book is laced with humor as well as gravitas .
Three essays are accompanied by songs from the gifted singer-songwriter Carrie Newcomer, written in response to those themes in the essay.
Parker J. Palmer is a teacher, author, and founder and senior partner emeritus of the Center for Courage & Renewal. He is the author of ten books—including: Healing the Heart of Democracy, The Courage to Teach and Let Your Life Speak.
If you would like to attend these sessions you can order the book online: About $10.00 for an E-book and from $12- $20 for paperback.
The book includes a prelude and seven chapters.
We will go over and discuss one chapter each week.
First three weeks listed below:
August 5: Prelude
August 12: Chapter One ~ The View from the Brink: What I Can See from Here
August 19: Chapter Two ~ Young and Old: The Dance of the Generations
One hour session each week.
No lunch or refreshment will be served.
You are certainly welcome to bring your own.
CSE ONLINE OPTIONS
For those who do prefer to remain at home on Thursdays we use live online forum via Zoom. Link sent by email for you to join those of us in Sponsler Hall . Please call the church office (321)783-3961 and we can add your email to our list.
CSE 2021 FALL SESSIONS
AFTER OUR BOOK STUDY WE WILL RESUME OUR GREAT COURSE LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE: CONTROVERSIES AND MEANING IN WESTERN HISTORY
Plan to join us for this “Great Course” video-discussion series.
Videos led by Professor Craig R. Koester of Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. a preeminent scholar and teacher of the Apocalypse. Throughout these lectures, Professor Koester focuses on what John actually wrote in the Apocalypse, what his situation tells us about his meaning, how that meaning can be applied to our own lives, and how contemporary biblical scholars relate Revelation to the modern world.
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ARCHIVES
CSE 2021 SPRING / SUMMER SESSIONS
Thursdays: 10:30-11:30 AM
12 Weeks! April 15 – June 24
THE APOCALYPSE: CONTROVERSIES AND MEANING IN WESTERN HISTORY
Exiled to the island of Patmos over 1,900 years ago, a prophet named John wrote a remarkable letter to fellow Christians. That letter is the Apocalypse of John, also known as the book of Revelation, and Christians and non-Christians alike have been debating its message ever since.
Plan to join us for this “Great Course” video-discussion series.
Videos led by Professor Craig R. Koester of Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. a preeminent scholar and teacher of the Apocalypse. Throughout these lectures, Professor Koester focuses on what John actually wrote in the Apocalypse, what his situation tells us about his meaning, how that meaning can be applied to our own lives, and how contemporary biblical scholars relate Revelation to the modern world.
CSE 2021 WINTER/SPRING SESSIONS
Thursdays: 10:30-11:30 AM
10 Weeks! January 21 – March 25
Surprised by the Parables: Growing in Grace through the Stories of Jesus
by Michelle Lee Barnewall
In the Gospels, Jesus used parables to teach transformative lessons and convey deep spiritual truths about the kingdom of God. But he often used them to confront and challenge his audience as well, forcing his listeners to open or close their hearts to the kingdom. In Surprised by the Parables, Barnewall explores the ancient context these parables drew from. These stories of grace reveal many of the mysteries central to God’s character, and understanding the ancient world behind them will help us see the parables from a new perspective.
Participants will want to purchase the book. The cost is anywhere from $8 to $9 for an E-book or about $18 plus shipping for a paperback .
CSE 2020 FALL SESSIONS
September 17 – November 19
The Beatitudes for Progressive Christians
A Ten Session Study Guide by Donald Schmidt
Schmidt says, “The Beatitudes tell us that we can find and experience God’s presence in difficult times. We can know our lives are expressions of divine love when we seek to bring about peace and justice in our world. We can find comfort when we are grieving and hurting. “
ORDER HERE: The Beatitudes for Progressive Christians
Our program will be different than we are used to. Only one session each week.
No lunch or refreshment will be served. You are certainly welcome to bring your own.
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CSE 2020 WINTER/SPRING SESSIONS
11:30 AM Session One / Lunch at 12:15 $4.00 / 12:45 PM Session Two
Our first program for Winter will be a 3-4 week book study: 1/16, 1/23, 1/30
“Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again”
by Rachel Held Evans.
Facilitated by Rev. Gail Hicks
“If the Bible isn’t a science book or an instruction manual, then what is it? What do people mean when they say the Bible is “inspired”? When Rachel Held Evans found herself asking these questions, she began a quest to better understand what the Bible is and how it is meant to be read. What she discovered changed her—and it will change you too.”
If you would like to attend these sessions you can order the book online for about $12-$15.00
Inspired for sale on Amazon
Rachel Held Evans (June 8, 1981 – May 4, 2019) was an American Christian columnist, blogger and author.
February 20-27
Lives of Great Christians: Great Courses Video
The full course is a wide-ranging chronological survey ranging across 21 centuries, five continents, and several denominations. For these last two weeks of February we will check in on 4 video stories (2 each week) before digging into another book discussion.
Lives of Great Christians Overview:
The followers of Jesus, who came to be called Christians, have practiced and preached their beliefs for centuries. Their actions and achievements, their abilities and energies, have changed the course of history and the nature of belief. Many are well known, but many more are obscure or even nameless. The Lives of Great Christians will introduce you to some of Christianity’s luminaries. You will know once you meet them why they are great, and you will be interested and inspired by the many ways they found to live lives of faith.
March 5 – April 2
Book Study: “A Pilgrimage to Eternity: From Canterbury to Rome in Search of a Faith” By Timothy Egan
We will finish off our Winter sessions with a 5 week travelogue book study discussing the reading along with a slideshow that will have some pictures of the authors journeys to different locations. Facilitated by Bob Watkins and Coleman Todd
Reviews:
One of Oprah’s Must-Read Books of Fall 2019
“A glorious, laugh-out-loud, wipe-away-tears, blister-riddled, often rain-soaked, sometimes bone-chilled, desolate and desperate, quietly triumphant walk through church history—Egan aimed high, and he reached it.” —The Chicago Tribune
“What a wondrous work! Somehow Egan has pulled together what seems like the entire history of Christianity, the scenes and succulents of much of Europe and his own personal story into an engrossing narrative. This beautifully written and totally clear-eyed account of his pilgrimage from Canterbury to Rome will have you wondering whether we should all embark on such a journey, either of the body, the soul or, as in Egan’s case, both.” —Cokie Roberts
“Whether read as a travelogue, history or personal spiritual quest, A PILGRIMAGE TO ETERNITY will enlighten and entertain its audience…both mesmerizing and uplifting.” —BookReporter
Timothy Egan is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and the author of eight other books, most recently The Immortal Irishman, a New York Times bestseller. His book on the Dust Bowl, The Worst Hard Time, won a National Book Award for nonfiction. He writes a biweekly opinion column for The New York Times.
Cocoa Beach Community Church 
Who is doing the songs on august 22
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