Annual lecture series will focus on how the story of Jesus was preserved by early Christians

Dr. Travis Williams

Tusculum College’s annual Theologian-in-Residence lecture series in February will consider how the story of Jesus was preserved and transmitted by early Christians prior to being recorded in the Gospels.

Dr. Travis Williams, assistant professor of religion at Tusculum College, will present

the series of lectures, “Jesus in Early Christian Memory: Remembering, Reconstructing and Rehearsing the Past.”  By considering the latest research on memory and oral tradition, the series will explore how the Jesus tradition was preserved and transmitted by the earliest Christian communities and what this means for a modern faith perspective.

Lectures will take place each Tuesday of the month – Feb. 7, 14, 21 and 28 – in the series, sponsored by Tusculum College and partially funded by Ron Smith. Each lecture session will begin at 10 a.m. in the Chalmers Conference Center in the Niswonger Commons. The sessions typically end around 2 p.m., and lunch in the college’s cafeteria is included. There is no admission fee to attend the lectures.

This will be the third time that Dr. Williams has led the series, now in its 26th year. He previously served as Theologian-in-Residence in 2014, lecturing on the formation of early Christian identity in response to persecution, and last year, as he presented informative sessions about the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Although a native of East Tennessee, Dr. Williams received his doctorate in New Testament from the University of Exeter in England. After moving back to the U.S., he began his career at Tusculum in 2010. His teaching duties at the college focus primarily on the Jewish and Christian traditions; however, he regularly leads courses that fall within the broader sphere of religious studies.

In his research, Dr. Williams focuses on a variety of different topics within the field of biblical studies, including the New Testament letter of 1 Peter, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the intersection between memory and ancient media culture. He has several books and articles published, including two recent articles about I Peter in academic journals and an essay about the reception of Jesus in the epistles of Peter and Jude in a reference series about Jesus’ reception in the first three centuries.

During the first session of the series on Feb. 7, “The Quest for Remembered Jesus,” Dr. Williams will provide a brief introduction to the quest for the historical Jesus. The session will consider where the search went off track and how a focus on memory could offer a helpful corrective.

“Jesus and the Cognitive Dimensions of Memory,” the second session on Feb. 14, will explore the various processes involved in the cognitive formation of memory. Most importantly, the session will focus on the different ways that distortion would have shaped the memories of Jesus.

The third session on Feb. 21, “Jesus and the Social Dimensions of Memory,” will consider the impact of social environment on the construction of memory. Part of this session will include an examination of the role of eyewitnesses in the formation and dissemination of the early Jesus tradition.

In the concluding lecture on Feb. 28, “Jesus and the Oral Transmission of Memory,” Dr. Williams will focus on the transmission of oral tradition within early Christian communities. In particular, attention will be given to the malleability and persistence of the Jesus tradition as it passed through human agents.

Although the series has no admission fee, reservations are required. For more information or to make a reservation for the series, please call 423-636-7304 or email eestes@tusculum.edu.