Join Dr. Crossan for a Five-Week Online Lenten Class!
What can we actually know about Jesus of Nazareth? And, what difference does it make?
For over five decades, Dr. John Dominic Crossan has been one of the world's foremost scholars of the historical Jesus—rigorously reconstructing the life, teachings, and world of a first-century Jewish peasant who proclaimed God's Rule in Roman-occupied Galilee. His work has shaped an entire generation of scholarship and transformed how millions understand the figure at the center of Christian faith.
This Lenten class begins where all of Dom's work begins: with history. What was actually happening in Galilee in the 20s CE? What did Herod Antipas' transformation of the "Sea of Galilee" into the commercial "Sea of Tiberias" mean for peasant fishing communities? Why did Jesus emerge from John's baptism movement proclaiming God's Rule through parables—and what made that medium so perfectly suited to that message?
Only by understanding what Jesus' parables meant then can we wrestle with what they might demand of us now.
4 Visual Lectures
Each pre-recorded video lecture features Dr. Crossan's masterful teaching, drawing on decades of historical research and his many visits across the Holy Land.
5 Livestream QnAs
Each week includes a live question and answer session with Dr. Crossan and Dr. Tripp Fuller—your chance to engage directly with one of the world's leading Jesus scholars.
Online Group
Connect with other participants in the private Facebook group and access all lectures and livestream replays on the Class Resource Page.
ASYNCHRONOUS CLASS: You can participate fully without being present at any specific time. Lectures and livestream replays are available on the Class Resource Page.
CHURCH GROUPS: You are welcome to use this class for your Sunday School class or small group! More details available below in our FAQs.
COST: A course like this is typically offered for $250 or more, but we invite you to contribute whatever you can to help make this possible for everyone!
Fifty Years of Parables
This series marks a personal milestone: fifty years after In Parables (1973)—the book that, in Dom's words, "started everything for me, and for others as well"—he returns to the questions that have driven his life's work:
How do we understand the Parables of Jesus and the Kingdom of God today?
Does the medium of Jesus' parables cohere with the message of God's Rule—and if so, how?
Join Dr. John Dominic Crossan and Dr. Tripp Fuller as they explore how the historical reconstruction of Jesus' world illuminates both the radical challenge he posed to empire then and the claims his vision makes on us today.
The Historical Starting Point
Dom's method has always been clear: we must hear the texts accurately for then before we can accept or reject them for now. This class embodies that commitment.
In the 20s CE, Herod Antipas transformed the open "Sea of Galilee" into the enclosed "Sea of Tiberias"—a commercial lake serving Roman imperial interests. This wasn't just an economic policy; it was an assault on the peasant fishing communities that had sustained life around those waters for generations. It was the Romanization of the Jewish homeland and the commercialization of Galilee's most vital resource.
It was precisely in this context—recoverable through archaeology, ancient texts, and careful historical reconstruction—that Jesus emerged from John's baptism movement at the Jordan. He proclaimed God's Rule not through armed revolt or apocalyptic withdrawal, but through parables: stories that didn't just describe divine justice but invited participation in it.
The historical evidence reveals that Jesus' medium and message were inseparable. His parables were a participatory pedagogy for a participatory divine rule—a way of teaching that enacted the very thing it announced. To understand this is to be confronted with a Jesus who is not merely an object of belief but a challenge to how we live.
History doesn't give us a safe Jesus. It gives us a dangerous one.
Watch the Preview Livestream!
Join Dr. John Dominic Crossan and Dr. Tripp Fuller on
Tuesday, January 27th (10am PT / 1pm ET) via YouTube Livestream.
4 Visual Lectures & 5 QnAs
Watch the pre-recorded video lecture, and join Dr. John Dominic Crossan and Dr. Tripp Fuller for the livestream question and answer session each week!
Week 01
ISRAEL & ROME
Livestream QnA: Tuesday, February 24th (10am PT / 1pm ET)
How the Romanization of Israel resulted in both Violent Rebellion & Nonviolent Resistance
Objective: Establish the political matrix of Jesus' world through historical reconstruction. We will examine...
- The process of Romanization in first-century Israel
- The spectrum of Jewish responses—from violent rebellion to nonviolent resistance
- The historical evidence for where Jesus and his movement fit within this landscape
Week 02
BAPTISM & JORDAN
Livestream QnA: Tuesday, March 3rd (10am PT / 1pm ET)
How John's "baptism" was so distinctive that he was nicknamed "Baptist" by both Josephus and Mark
Objective: Examine what history tells us about John's movement and Jesus' participation in it. We will examine...
- What made John's baptism distinctive enough to become his defining title
- The convergent historical evidence from Josephus and the Gospels
- How Jesus' emergence from this movement shaped his own mission and message
Week 03
TRADITION & TRACTION
Livestream QnA: Tuesday, March 10th (10am PT / 1pm ET)
How the biblical vision of distributive justice got socio-political traction from Antipas' lake enclosure
Objective: Discover how historical circumstances gave ancient prophetic traditions urgent new relevance. We will examine...
- The economic and social impact of Antipas' commercialization of the lake
- Israel's deep biblical tradition of distributive justice
- How imperial policy inadvertently created the conditions for Jesus' message to resonate—then and now
Week 04
MEDIUM & MESSAGE
Livestream QnA: Tuesday, March 17th (10am PT / 1pm ET)
How Jesus' Parables were a Participatory Pedagogy for a Participatory Divine Rule on Earth
Objective: Understand the inseparable relationship between how Jesus taught and what Jesus taught. We will examine...
- The parable as a distinctive and deliberate pedagogical form
- How participatory teaching embodies and enacts participatory divine rule
- Dom's mature reflection on parables fifty years after the book that started it all
Week 05
CONCLUDING Q&A SESSION
Livestream QnA: Tuesday, March 24th (10am PT / 1pm ET)
Objective: Dom will answer your questions as we wrap up the series.
Meet Our Hosts
Dr. John Dominic Crossan
One of the World's Leading Historical Jesus Scholars
John Dominic Crossan is an Irish-American biblical scholar with two-year post-doctoral diplomas in exegesis from Rome's Pontifical Biblical Institute and in archaeology from Jerusalem's École Biblique. He has been a mendicant friar and a catholic priest, a Co-Chair of the Jesus Seminar, and a President of the Society of Biblical Literature.
For over fifty years, Dom has been at the forefront of historical Jesus research, author of landmark works including The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, God and Empire, and the book that started it all, In Parables: The Challenge of the Historical Jesus (1973).
His method is rigorous and consistent: situate biblical texts within the reconstructed matrix of their own genre and purpose, their own time and place, and hear them accurately for then before accepting or rejecting them for now. His reconstructed Jesus incarnates nonviolent resistance to the Romanization of his Jewish homeland and the Herodian commercialization of his Galilean lake—a present program and future hope for a transformed world and transfigured earth.
This is not Jesus as we might wish him to be. This is Jesus as history can recover him—and that Jesus has something to say to us.
Dr. Tripp Fuller
Luther Theological Seminary
Homebrewed Christianity
Theology Class
Dr. Tripp Fuller is a theologian, minister, and public intellectual who earned his B.A. from Campbell University, his M.Div. from Wake Forest University Divinity School, and his Ph.D. in Philosophy, Religion, and Theology from Claremont Graduate University. Following a postdoctoral research fellowship in Theology & Science at the University of Edinburgh, he currently serves as Visiting Professor of Theology & Culture at Luther Seminary. Dr. Fuller is the author of The Homebrewed Christianity Guide to Jesus: Lord, Liar, Lunatic . . . Or Awesome? (Fortress Press, 2015), Divine Self-Investment: An Open and Relational Constructive Christology (2020), and God After Deconstruction, and serves as series editor for the Homebrewed Christianity Guides published by Fortress Press, which features volumes on topics including God, Church History, the Holy Spirit, and the End Times. He is the founder and host of the Homebrewed Christianity Podcast, which he launched in 2008 and has grown into one of the most popular theology podcasts in the world, garnering over 2 million downloads last year. He also writes the Process This Substack newsletter, which has attracted more than 75,000 subscribers, and leads online theology courses that served over 20,000 students last year, making him one of the most influential voices in making academic theology accessible to broader audiences. Tripp is a very committed and (some of his friends think overly) engaged Lakers fan and takes Star Wars and Lord of the Rings very seriously.
Why History Matters
Too often, Jesus becomes a mirror reflecting whatever we want to see. Historical scholarship offers something different: a Jesus who surprises us, challenges us, and refuses to be domesticated by our assumptions.
When we understand what was actually happening in first-century Galilee—the economic pressures, the political tensions, the competing visions of resistance—we begin to see why Jesus' parables were not nice stories but dangerous speech. We see why his vision of God's Rule was a direct challenge to Caesar's rule. And we're confronted with the question of what that challenge means for us today.
History doesn't tell us what to believe. But it can show us what we're dealing with.
What People Are Saying
"As a minister these classes and conversations have enriched how I read and engage with our sacred texts, as well as for the community I help shepherd. As an individual person of faith I'm always amazed at the resources and friends Tripp helps curate and connect with on a deeper and authentic level."
Will Rose - Parish Pastor, Holy Trinity Lutheran and Lutheran Campus Ministry (Chapel Hill, NC)
“Grad-school level classes with incredible teachers in a fun, accessible and engaging online experience for even an exhausted working pastor/parent to participate in and enjoy!”
Rachel Haxtema - Associate Pastor, Keystone UCC (Seattle, WA)
“I’ve taken several Homebrewed classes over the years, from a couple of Black theology classes, to Kierkegaard to Bonhoeffer, to Tolkien and many others I’ve heard episodes from. From the episodes and the readings I’ve learned things I wouldn’t have otherwise had access to, from some of my favorite scholars or about some of my favorite topics. From some of the readings I’ve bought books I wouldn’t have otherwise read, and further deepened what I was able to think with. It’s been a treasure to be part of them.”
Jonathan Stegall - faith-rooted organizer, abolitionist, designer, and coder
“Homebrewed Christianity is, in my opinion, the best open and interactive community I’ve ever been apart of. I’ve learned so much from people who are not only brilliant but kind and fun."
Ednaldo Elme - the drummer who doesn’t tell his minister what he’s really thinking
“HBC classes have been an absolute lifeline for allowing me to have continuing education outside of the adult Sunday School setting. Many people have limited exposure to the entire spectrum of Christianity as well as other world religions in the church setting, and these classes are a wonderful resource in that regard. Also, as someone who is getting a theology degree, the HBC classes have provided a super helpful avenue for learning."
John Pohl, MD - Pediatric Surgeon (University of Utah)
Frequently Asked Questions
When does the class meet?
The class is asynchronous and you can participate fully without being present at any specific time. You can watch the pre-recorded lectures, livestream QnAs, and replays will be available on the Class Resource Page.
LIVESTREAM QnA SESSIONS:
Tuesdays, February 24th - March 24th (10am PT / 1pm ET) - available to watch via the Class Resource Page and YouTube.
How do I get access to the class content?
The complete class content collection will be available on the password protected Class Resource Page. The downloadable audio and video of each session will be uploaded there and available for at least a year.
What happens after I sign up?
The email you enter when signing up will receive an email from classinfo[at]homebrewedchristianty[dot]com. The email will include access to the Class Resource Page, details on how to join the class Facebook group, and more.
Do I have to have Facebook?
No. Facebook is not required to participate, but an additional way to connect with other class members and interact throughout the class.
How can we use this with our church group?
We would love for you to use this online class for your Sunday School class or small group! If people will be watching the lectures (approximately 50 minutes) and livestreams (approximately 70 minutes) on their own, we encourage every person to sign up and receive access to the Class Resource Page and Facebook group. Each person is welcome to make a donation on their own, or the church can designate one person to make a donation on behalf of the group. If the church is making the donation, feel free to make a donation in the amount of whatever you have budgeted for a curriculum of this quality. If you have further questions, please email classinfo[at]homebrewedchristianty[dot]com.