This talk was offered at Trinity University, San Antonio on February 11th, 2019. For more information about upcoming TI events, visit: thomisticinstitute.org/events-1

Lecture Description:

Every year around Christmas and Easter, it seems, the media runs a story about “who Jesus really was.” Magazine articles and television specials purport to tell us the truth about the man from Nazareth – a truth, they often claim, that the Church has tried to cover up for centuries. These stories represent one popular manifestation of what has come to be known as the “quest for the historical Jesus.” While this quest is a legitimate scholarly discipline, it can sometimes unsettle believers, leading them to question the reliability of the gospels and the truth of the Church’s faith in Christ. In this talk, Fr. Morales will first consider a couple of the main presuppositions that underlie much historical Jesus scholarship. He will then discuss the nature of the gospels and their relation to history. Finally, he will offer a brief sketch of what we can know about Jesus based simply on historical research, arguing that a responsible historical sketch helps to illuminate the Church’s faith in Christ.

Speaker Bio:

Fr. Isaac Morales, O.P. entered the Dominican novitiate for the Province of St. Joseph in the summer of 2012. Before joining the order, Fr. Isaac received a BSE in civil engineering from Duke University, an MTS with a concentration in biblical studies from the University of Notre Dame, and a PhD in New Testament from Duke University. After completing his PhD, he taught in the department of theology at Marquette University for four years. During the academic year 201112, he was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the LudwigMaximilians Universität in Munich. Fr. was ordained to the priesthood in May of 2018.