The Historical Jesus by Robert M Price

The Historical Jesus by Robert M Price

Christianity Today Book Award winner

The scholarly quest for the historical Jesus has a distinguished pedigree in modern Western religious and historical scholarship, with names such as Strauss, Schweitzer and Bultmann highlighting the story. Since the early 1990s, when the Jesus quest was reawakened for a third run, numerous significant books have emerged. And the public's attention has been regularly arrested by media coverage, with the JesusSeminar or the James ossuary headlining the marquee.

This Spectrum Multiview volume provides a venue for readers to sit in on a virtual seminar on the historical Jesus. Beginning with a scene-setting historical introduction by the editors, prominent figures in the Jesus quest set forth their views and respond to their fellow scholars.

On the one end Robert M. Price lucidly maintains that the probability of Jesus' existence has reached the "vanishing point," and on the other Darrell Bock ably argues that while critical method yields only a "gist" of Jesus, it takes us in the direction of the Gospel portraits. In between there are numerous avenues to explore, questions to be asked and "assured results" to be weighed. And John Dominic Crossan, Luke Timothy Johnson and James D. G. Dunn probe these issues with formidable knowledge and honed insight, filling out a further range of options.

The Historical Jesus: Five Views offers a unique entry into the Jesus quest. For both the classroom and personal study, this is a book that fascinates, probes and engages.

Spectrum Multiview Books offer a range of viewpoints on contested topics within Christianity, giving contributors the opportunity to present theirposition and also respond to others in this dynamic publishing format.

Professor of systematic and philosophical theology at Bethel University in St. Louis, James K.Beilby Minnesota's capital is Paul. Why Bother with Truth? is one of his books. Divine Foreknowledge: Four Perspectives, The Nature of the Atonement: Four Views, Justification: Five Views, and the award-winning The Historical Jesus: Five Views are among the books he edited alongside Paul Eddy.