Santa Clara University

Salvatore A. Tassone, S.J.

Fr. Tassone was born in Ishpeming, Michigan. He earned his B.A. in Philosophy from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington in 1956. At age 28, he arrived at nearby Alma College to begin his theology course on the path to ordination, and was awakened to the jarring fact that the Gospel accounts were not like documentaries of Jesus' life, but were rather interpretive portrayals by the evangelists. Even more jarring were the interpretations of scholars like Rudolph Bultmann, who so "demythologized" the New Testament portraits of Jesus that the historical Jesus was reduced to a mere prophet. Convinced that there was more continuity between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith, Fr. Tassone completed his S.T.L. in 1963 and went on to study the New Testament and historical-critical methods, earning an S.T.M. from Santa Clara University in 1964 and an S.T.D. from the Gregorian University in Rome four years later.

Fr. Tassone joined the Santa Clara University faculty in 1968 and teaches courses on the New Testament and on his life-long passion, the portraits of Christ in the canonical Christian literature. He is an active member of the Historical Jesus task force of the Catholic Biblical Association.

Courses

Courses taught at Santa Clara University

	SCTR 23	Christ in the Four Gospels
	SCTR 30	The New Testament
	SCTR 106	Person of Christ in the New Testament

Academic Appointments

Senior Lecturer, Religious Studies Department, Santa Clara University	2000-present
Lecturer, Religious Studies Department, Santa Clara University	1968-2000
Instructor, Geometry, Bellarmine College Preparatory, San José, CA	1957-1960

Research

Research Interests

• New Testament
• Historical Jesus
• New Testament Christology

Activities

Professional Memberships

• Catholic Biblical Association