Apostolos in the Making

In this five-lecture course, Dr. Litwa walks you through every passage of the Antitheses, using his latest reconstruction. The Antitheses is Marcion's timeless work--the very first known introduction to the New Testament, and one of the most incisive criticisms of the character of the creator deity in Jewish scripture. Marcion argued that an enlightened reading of distinctively Jewish and Christian scripture led to an unavoidable conclusion: the God of Jesus is not Yahweh, the lower lord of Israel. See how one of Christianity's first theologians made this daring conclusion, following his logic step by step.

"David Litwa’s book provides a fresh start with Marcion. The author offers for the first time an investigation of Marcion that breaks with reliance on the polemical remarks of his opponents and lets go of the questionable project of trying to reverse-engineer those polemical distortions to arrive at reliable information. For those who thought that was our only option, Litwa’s book will be eye-opening. He assembles a portrait based primarily on material traceable to Marcion himself, as either author or authorizer. Building on recent advances in reconstructing the Marcionite scriptures, Litwa gives a careful reading of the theology they support. His close analysis of the remains of Marcion’s Antitheses is unparalleled in previous scholarship for its depth and insight. The result is a major contribution to the current renaissance of work on Marcion. At the same time, it is a lesson in the difference a disciplined methodology can make in a field where the 'church fathers' all too often still set the terms of our understanding of early Christianities."

"What Dr. Litwa offers is an academic level of study in courses that would be impossible to get in most colleges or universities, without moving to the very few places that do specialize in these topics. For myself, in my desire to pursue this line of study in an academic setting, the addition of Dr. Litwa’s classes give my own studies the lens that I have been looking for. His content informs my other classes so that I have a broader view of the Western Philosophical and Religious tradition that I could not get otherwise. The fact that his classes are online, very affordable, and come with lots of primary source and secondary materials make them invaluable."

-Lisa

student