Adult Education

Class: Matthew's Jewish Jesus
9:15 AM, Fireside Room
Class Description: Despite the fact that Jesus and his earliest followers were Jews, his teachings quickly became a new religion in their own right, distinct from Judaism. While the Gospel of Matthew has long enjoyed pride of place as the first book in the Christian New Testament, it witnesses historically to an early form of Jewish Christianity that flourished in the period before the birth of Christianity as a largely non-Jewish religion. This course will focus on Matthew’s special presentation of Jesus as the long-awaited messiah of Israel, his depiction of Jesus as a devout, even radical teacher of Torah, and Jesus’s arguments with competing forms of Judaism, such as Pharisees, over matters of divorce, remarriage, and sex. We will also look at how Matthew participates in ancient controversies over true apostleship and church leadership by improving the rather unflattering picture of the twelve disciples left by his predecessor in the Gospel of Mark.
September 13th: Filling in Mark’s gaps: Jesus’s Jewish heritage, his messianic credentials, and infancy story
September 20th: Matthew’s presentation of Jesus as a radical Torah teacher
September 27th: Matthew’s rehabilitation of the twelve disciples as leaders of the church and missionaries to the gentile nations

Location: Fireside Room
Presentation: Choosing Life, The Worlds of the Bible
Class Description:
We do not live differently simply because someone tells us to live differently. We live differently when we encounter a new world of possibilities.The Bible has endured for centuries not because it offers simple answers or moral lessons, but because it opens worlds. Its stories, poems, parables, and visions invite us to imagine reality in new ways—to see hope where there is despair, freedom where there is bondage, neighbors where there were strangers, and life where we expected only loss.In this four-week exploration, we will examine several biblical texts through the lenses of history, narrative, theology, and interpretation. More importantly, we will ask what kinds of worlds these texts invite us to inhabit—and why some of those worlds continue to give life while others diminish it.Together we will explore the Bible not simply as a book to be explained, but as a collection of texts that continue to expand the horizons of what we can imagine, believe, and become. Along the way, we will practice a kind of reading that is intellectually honest, spiritually open, and resistant to both easy certainty and easy dismissal.No prior biblical knowledge is required—only curiosity, imagination, and a willingness to enter the world of the text.

Location: Leutwiler Room
Presentation: Westward Expansion
Class 1 - Westward Expansion and American Identity in the 13 colonies.
Class 2 - Manifest Destiny and the Market Revolution
Class 3 - Conquering The Great American West
Class 4 - American Imperialism Explores the Expansion of the US around the world in the latter half of the 19th and early 20th Centuries, that transformed our country from a growing continental republic into a dominant global power.

Christopher Saxton holds degrees from St. Louis University, Southern Illinois University and from Lindenwood.  Mr. Saxton was awarded the James Madison Memorial Fellowship for the state of Missouri.  He taught at Ladue Horton Watkins for 30 years.  Currently, he is teaching AP history and AP geography at Visitation Academy.

Location: Fireside Room
Presentation: Reformed and Catholic: A Global, Timeless, Challenging, and Hopeful Faith