 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Who on Earth Was Jesus?: The Modern Quest for the Jesus of History for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Product Description
Review
Brilliant and timely. Everyone ought to read it, especially those with no sympathy for religion and its crazier adherants...This book is an enormous achievement, with its vivid descriptions of what scholars have uncovered... A useful resource for people who want a one-volume guide to a multi-volume industry. It's all here, and it's as up-to-date as you are likely to get. --Richard Holloway, former Bishop of Edinburgh
What happens when the Christ of faith meets the Jesus of history? How can it be that scholars can arrive at such startlingly different interpretations of the reported sayings [of Jesus], and thereby such very different profiles of Jesus himself? This is the question that preoccupies Boulton in an amazingly good synthesis of historical Jesus scholarship. Boulton gives an overview of several factions of Jesus scholars, comparing their conclusions and explaining their theses. His scope is as wide-ranging as it is even-handed; from theologians to scholars to popes, he distills their thoughts into a comprehensible and comprehensive survey of the best of the contemporary thinkers. Boulton is a British Quaker, and has been involved in trans-denominational religious activities for many years. Readers will find no overt proselytizing in this book. Instead, the author treats them to an unbiased look at the ever-changing discipline of Jesus studies. In the end, Boulton understands that it is not the scholar, nor the theologian, who will define the kingdom on Earth. Rather, it will be the job of all of us to discern the Jesus of today from words written long ago. This book is not to be missed. --Publishers Weekly- 3 STAR REVIEW
The best and most thorough account of the breadth and variety of historical Jesus scholarship. Lively, informed, fair, and highly recommended. --Marcus Borg
What happens when the Christ of faith meets the Jesus of history? How can it be that scholars can arrive at such startlingly different interpretations of the reported sayings [of Jesus], and thereby such very different profiles of Jesus himself? This is the question that preoccupies Boulton in an amazingly good synthesis of historical Jesus scholarship. Boulton gives an overview of several factions of Jesus scholars, comparing their conclusions and explaining their theses. His scope is as wide-ranging as it is even-handed; from theologians to scholars to popes, he distills their thoughts into a comprehensible and comprehensive survey of the best of the contemporary thinkers. Boulton is a British Quaker, and has been involved in trans-denominational religious activities for many years. Readers will find no overt proselytizing in this book. Instead, the author treats them to an unbiased look at the ever-changing discipline of Jesus studies. In the end, Boulton understands that it is not the scholar, nor the theologian, who will define the kingdom on Earth. Rather, it will be the job of all of us to discern the Jesus of today from words written long ago. This book is not to be missed. --Publishers Weekly- 3 STAR REVIEW
The best and most thorough account of the breadth and variety of historical Jesus scholarship. Lively, informed, fair, and highly recommended. --Marcus Borg
Product Description
century after Albert Schweitzer's Quest of the Historical Jesus, modern historians with new techniques are back on the trail. In the most comprehensive survey yet published, David Boulton presents an engrossing account of the debate between contemporary scholars on what we can know about the human Jesus of history before he became the divine Christ of faith.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
So much is written today about Jesus and the Gospels, it is not easy to keep up with it all. For non-academics like myself, this is a wonderful resource. It provides an informed, comprehensive overview of contemporary Jesus scholarship, very readable and engaging right through. In bringing this book to birth, David Boulton has rendered us all an invaluable service, and I for none am very grateful.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is a really labour-saving way of getting into the historical Jesus debate, or Jesus industry, as the author might call it.
On the one hand, I regret having already slogged through some of the books that he reviews here -- reading this might have saved me the trouble -- but on the other hand, I wonder what anyone new to the subject would or could make of the welter of opinions that are compared and contrasted here. Would it just be overwhelming? It's certainly a reminder to anyone who needed it that making confident statements about what Jesus said or did is a very tricky business.
The style is journalistic and very readable, so much so that the book's a real page-turner -- the author sees it and tells it like a detective story, describing the academics whose work he reviews using terms such as "Jesus sleuths". I think Bertrand Russell once remarked that you could tell when someone really understood a subject by how simple he made it appear. This concise and easy style must have cost the author I shudder to think how long in researching the book. I just wonder how many church-goers will be put off by a way of talking in the early chapters that they might see as too journalistic and maybe even reductionist.
Given the colossal amount of books and papers that had to be covered, this book is a life's achievement and I don't know of any competitor that even comes close.
On the one hand, I regret having already slogged through some of the books that he reviews here -- reading this might have saved me the trouble -- but on the other hand, I wonder what anyone new to the subject would or could make of the welter of opinions that are compared and contrasted here. Would it just be overwhelming? It's certainly a reminder to anyone who needed it that making confident statements about what Jesus said or did is a very tricky business.
The style is journalistic and very readable, so much so that the book's a real page-turner -- the author sees it and tells it like a detective story, describing the academics whose work he reviews using terms such as "Jesus sleuths". I think Bertrand Russell once remarked that you could tell when someone really understood a subject by how simple he made it appear. This concise and easy style must have cost the author I shudder to think how long in researching the book. I just wonder how many church-goers will be put off by a way of talking in the early chapters that they might see as too journalistic and maybe even reductionist.
Given the colossal amount of books and papers that had to be covered, this book is a life's achievement and I don't know of any competitor that even comes close.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Highly useful book if you want to get up to speed with current debates on the historical Jesus. Draws on the academic big hitters but presents their material in a very accessible way. Extremely useful if you are studying these issues.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biography > Religious > Christianity
- Books > Biography > Religious > Jesus
- Books > History > Religious History > Christianity
- Books > Religion & Spirituality > Bible
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
