Title of Conference: Pharisees: Characters not Caricatures

Luke Macnamara OSB, lecturer in Sacred Scripture at St Patrick's College Maynooth and Anne Lanigan PhD Student at SPCM will both give papers at this conference.

Pharisees are today typically viewed as closed, legalistic, judgmental, negative, disengaged, exclusive while Jesus is regarded as open, forgiving, loving, hopeful, engaging, inclusive. However, it is not necessary to make the Pharisees look bad for Jesus to look good, Jesus can look good all by himself! Pharisees were well regarded by the wider populace of their day. Avoiding a pantomime portrayal of the good and bad leads to a more fruitful exploration of Jesus’ interaction with this interesting, diverse and nuanced Jewish group of the first century.

Topics:

Letting the Pharisees Speak for Themselves – Exploring the Sources

Luke Macnamara OSB

Getting to Know Individual Pharisees (Simon, Nicodemus, Gamaliel, Paul, Josephus)

Anne Lanigan MTh St Patrick’s College Maynooth

The Pharisees in Art, Film & Culture through the Ages

David Mc Burnie / Luke Macnamara OSB

The Pharisees – A Challenge to Teachers, Catechists & Preachers

Anne Lanigan MTh / Columba McCann OSB / Luke Macnamara OSB