I recently participated in Caspari Center’s “Discovering Jesus in His Jewish Context” course for the second time. The first such course I attended was in the fall of 2014. Participating in that first course was very valuable for me, and the experience provided an important foundation on which to build, as I learned more about these topics.
I did not initially intend to join the course a second time, but when I learned of the 2018 spring course, my instinctive reaction was to attend again. Why? My reasons were partially conscious, but additionally, I just had a very strong gut feeling that I should take part in this course.
The most important thing for me, this time around, was to listen to the content and to get a sense of the lecturers’ deep commitment to their lectures topics. Being able to listen to speakers who have professional experience as well as local knowledge is unique, and it provided me with so much information. It was a very exciting and challenging experience.
I was prepared for some repetition in the content, but that wasn’t how it was. Rather, I found that I gained a lot of new knowledge, as well as new approaches to most of the topics. There were also many excursions with an abundance of new things to see and hear. Traveling through Samaria on the way to Galilee was especially riveting, as was the Sabbath service we attended in a Messianic Synagogue.
This is a course I particularly think that Norwegian priests, pastors and preachers could benefit from attending. In addition, I highly recommend the course to those who may be interested in such topics as the Jewish Roots of Christianity and the Movement of Messianic Jews.
Inger Kristine Løge