Part historical exploration, part theological inquiry, part meditation, the audio series The Last Week vividly brings to life the key moments leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection and provides space for personal reflection.

This digital download contains eight audio episodes for individual or group study. Though listeners may engage with the series at their leisure, each episode is designed to focus on one day of Holy Week, starting on Palm Sunday and ending on Easter Sunday.

The Last Week features fascinating new dialogue with John Dominic Crossan based on his book with the late Marcus Borg, “The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Final Days in Jerusalem.” In conversation with David Dykes and Ann Phelps of Faith And Reason, Crossan sets the scene for Holy Week within the context of a volatile Jerusalem into which Jesus arrives on Palm Sunday.

“Even those who know the story of Holy Week will find new levels of understanding through The Last Week,” said Dykes. “We invite listeners to consider what Jesus’ actions meant in his own time, the parallels we see in today’s world, and how his example can influence our actions now.”

Listeners are guided through reflection questions at the end of each episode, against a backdrop of meditative music that creates an ambience of a Lenten retreat.

“Music allows our minds to access memories and feelings, and to engage with scripture in a way that might be different than if we just read it on the page,” says Phelps, who is a musician by trade. “It puts us into a more contemplative, more personal space.”

The Last Week is available for download at faithandreason.org. It may be purchased by episode or as a series on CD Baby.