Westar Institute, home of the Jesus Seminar, was founded in 1986 as an advocate for religious literacy. A member-supported, non-profit institute, Westar brings scholars of religion into dialogue with people interested in understanding their religious heritage.
The academic study of religion won its independence, at great cost, from ecclesiastical control beginning in the seventeenth century. Yet because independent scholars were often treated as heretics, they clothed their findings in unintelligible jargon. Westar makes the scholarship of religion public by translating it into everyday language.
What follows is a overview of Westar, its many projects and activities.
Find out more about these particular projects by following their links,
or go to the Westar
front page for more detailed information.
The Jesus Seminar
Among the many Westar seminars and projects, the best-known is the Jesus
Seminar. The Jesus Seminar, with more than two hundred participating scholars,
has attempted to distinguish fact from fiction in the words and deeds ascribed
to Jesus in the gospels. The results of these deliberations are reported
in The
Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus (1993) and
The
Acts of Jesus: The Search for the Authentic Deeds (1998).
Other Westar Seminars
The Jesus Seminar is only one of the Westar Seminars. Westar's collaborative
scholarly research also includes the Paul Seminar, which is investigating
the letters attributed to Paul, and a Canon Seminar, which is reviewing
the books assigned to the New Testament. A Creeds Seminar and an Acts Seminar
are scheduled to begin deliberations in 1999.
Westar Fellows
The scholars who have participated in Westar Seminars—the Westar Fellows—have advanced degrees in religious studies and related fields from leading universities worldwide. Interested scholars can find out more about becoming a Westar Fellow.
Membership
Westar is a member-supported organization, with members around the world. Membership includes a subscription to Westar's magazine The Fourth R and discounts on books and selected events.
More
about becoming a Westar member
Events
Westar holds its national twice a year in Santa Rosa, California, in the heart of Sonoma County's wine country. These Spring and Fall Meetings, open to the public, feature lectures and workshops, meetings of the Westar Seminars, and social events and receptions.
Recent and Upcoming
Westar Meetings
The popularity of the Jesus Seminar has led to development of Jesus Seminar on the Road educational programs, which bring Westar scholars to communities across North America for lectures and workshops. These two-day events have been held or are scheduled in British Columbia, California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
Schedule
of upcoming Jesus Seminar on the Road programs
Tours
The Westar Institute sponsors tours to the sites of early Christianity—a program that some have called "The Jesus Seminar Around the World." The inaugural tour of Israel in 1998 attracted great interest as well as media attention, with coverage by the Chicago Tribune and ABC News. The program continues with scheduled new tours of Israel, Egypt, Turkey, and Greece.
Schedule of
upcoming Westar tours
Westar Periodicals
The latest thinking and research, and the work of the Westar Seminars and scholars, are represented in a variety of Westar periodicals.
The Fourth R is the bimonthly magazine of Westar Institute. A
subscription is included with Westar
membership.
Forum is the scholarly journal of Westar Institute.
Seminar
Papers are the working papers of the Westar Seminars, produced by Westar
Fellows and circulated in advance of Westar National Meetings. They serve
as the basis of Seminar deliberations.
Westar scholars are engaged in an exciting new translation of biblical and early Christian texts. Known as the Scholars Version (SV), this new translation is marked by a fresh and powerful style, intended to convey to the modern reader what the original readers and listeners would have heard and understood. The Scholars Version is the basic English translation employed in Seminar reports such as The Five Gospels and The Acts of Jesus. The volume The Complete Gospels contains the SV translation of all the known gospels and gospel fragments through 300 C.E.