Course Description: The purpose of this course is to provide the Christian leader with an introduction to the 27 New Testament documents in the light of the recent historical-critical methodologies. All Christian leaders must understand the numerous viewpoints on the NT as every NT commentary and study is written by an author holding specific presuppositions and assumptions about how the text should be studied. This course will enable the student to identify these points of view and critically evaluate them. The course will examine the texts of the New Testament in the order in which most scholarship believes that they were written instead of in the order in which they appear in the English NT. You will be required to read critically the NT texts as historical documents to investigate issues of central concern to the writing of the NT. These issues include the authorship, date and place of writing, readers, occasion, purpose, and content of each NT book. Special attention will be given to the current views on the reliability, integrity, authenticity, and accuracy of the NT canon and the implications these have for the Christian faith.