Jesus In Terms Research Articles

Jesus, the Crowds, and Historical Agency

Abstract Crossley and Myles’s Jesus: A Life in Class Struggle offers an innovative and accessible reading of the movement around Jesus in terms of class struggle. The authors combine a breadth of knowledge about first-century realities, acumen in exegesis of the Gospel texts, and contemporary crowd theory to reach new conclusions regarding Jesus and his disciples, especially in his last days, and regarding the ‘failure’ of their movement. This review examines their understanding of the ‘Jesus movement’ and its relationship to the Galilean peasantry and their methodology in extrapolating from the Gospels; and proposes a more thorough Marxist theorization of the Gospels’ role in producing the ‘failure’ they describe.

Clawing Through Bits of Glass and Bricks: James Baldwin and Reinhold Niebuhr on the Birmingham Church Bombing

ABSTRACTThis article analyzes the unpublished dialogue between James Baldwin and Reinhold Niebuhr where they discussed the role of the Christian church in the wake of six child murders in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963. On that catastrophic day—one that is impossible to forget—the Ku Klux Klan bombed The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, and two black boys were subsequently shot and killed. In the wake of that violence, this article will show that for Baldwin, the dynamite that exploded the face of the “alabaster Christ” from the stained‐glass window presents an opportunity for not only a new depiction of Jesus in terms of presentation—but more significantly—a brand‐new Christology rooted in black liberation. Such a reading provides us with an unusual constructive theological position offered by Baldwin, especially once it is read alongside a public essay written by the Association of Artists for Freedom advocating for Black Christmas.

THE HYPOSTASIS OF JESUS AND HIS REFLECTIONS FOR CURRENT BELIEVERS

The emergence of several cults that exist as evidence of the difficulty of understanding the concept of Christology as a whole. Therefore, theologians have tried to explain the concept of Christology using a tool, namely the concept of Hypostasis. The concept of the Hypostasis of Jesus is not easy, especially when describing the person of Jesus in terms of his existence as God and man. It is not too easy to understand the concept. Therefore, researchers are trying to find and see the background of concept building and its implementation for believers. From the background description, the following questions emerge: Is the concept of Jesus Hypostasis able to answer the different views on the divinity and humanity of Jesus? How understand the background concept of Jesus' Hypostasis as a theological struggle and its implementation for believers? The research method used is qualitative by applying the theological systematic analysis method. The results of his research show (i) The background of the emergence of heresies that existed at that time encouraged the emergence of the Jesus Hypostasis Concept as an explanatory model for the Christology concept, especially in explaining the divinity and humanity of Jesus; (ii) the concept of Hypostasis as an answer to the unity of nature between God and man in the person of Jesus, without overlapping nature and how it works; (iii) An effort is needed to explain and implement the concept of Hypostasis to believers.

The Emmaus narrative and contemporary Christian followership – An empirical case study

This article aims to explore a ‘lived discipleship’ by determining whether and how contemporary communities of faith could implement the norms and principles reflected in the Emmaus narrative of Luke 24:13–35 within a plausible epistemological framework that might facilitate a fresh understanding of Christian followership as discipleship. This was done through an empirical case study using two focus groups as co-researchers, in order to actively listen to their respective understandings of lived theology in their unique South African contexts. The two focus groups consisted of (1) a contemporary Christian grouping of Afrikaans-speaking, active churchgoers situated in Hazeldean, a suburb in Pretoria East, Tshwane, Gauteng and (2) a contemporary Christian grouping of African, active churchgoers situated in Ivory Park, a suburb in Tembisa, Ekurhuleni, Gauteng. This article concluded that Luke 24:13–35 nudged the co-researchers to re-evaluate their contemporary understanding of discipleship and moved them to additional and new perspectives in terms of practical expressions thereof that can be best described as ‘lived followership’. A shift from perceiving Jesus in terms of an ‘act to follow’ by gaining the correct knowledge, to following Jesus as ‘a performative act’, a shift from ‘theoretical knowledge’ to ‘heart knowledge’.Contribution: This article is a part of the Festschrift for Prof. Stephan Joubert. This article plays into similar creative interdisciplinary relationship as seen in the work of Prof. Joubert, by looking at the relationship between New Testament and Practical Theology in order to improve practices of faith that is rooted in a biblical understanding of Jesus.

Hearing Voices: Reading the Gospels in the Echo Chamber of Scripture

ABSTRACT This essay engages Richard Hays's recent monograph, Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels, through three sets of questions regarding the book's method, its utilization of the category “divine identity” in portrayals of Jesus in the Gospels, and its minimal appeal to Jewish interpretive traditions in sketching the Gospels' readings of OT Scripture. First, given that the book locates the “hermeneutical lens” from which the Gospels' use of the OT is considered in varying places, including with the original author, the first readers, and the contemporary reader, one may ask whether there are stable criteria for adjudicating between good and bad readings. Second, Hays's characterization of Jesus in terms of “divine identity”—a phrase introduced by Richard Bauckham into discussion of NT Christology but here employed somewhat differently—raises questions about its meaning and utility. Finally, although Hays acknowledges the existence of other first-century interpretive traditions, he less frequently engages them, leading one to question whether he has adequately described the “encyclopedia of production” of the Gospels or the “encyclopedia of reception” of their initial readers.

Book Review: From Jesus to the Internet: A History of Christianity and Media by Peter Horsfield

From Jesus to the Internet: A History of Christianity and Media. Peter Horsfield. Malden, Massachusetts: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015. 322 pp. $105 hbk. $34.95 pbk.Media scholars have long understood that the development of movable type enabled the Protestant Reformation, but broader historical scholarship on the role of media in the two millennia of Christianity has been episodic at best. That is, until now. With From Jesus to the Internet, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University Communication Professor Peter Horsfield explains how media have facilitated transformations in Christianity, from the oral ministry of Jesus and his disciples to the social media use of today's churches. Horsfield's compelling and nuanced scholarship of integration traces the evolution of Christianity from an oral Jewish movement in the 1st century through epochs dominated by written, printed, electronic, and now digital media to become the world's largest religious faith with 2.2 billion followers. But adjusting to centuries of economic, legal, political, and media conditions changed Christianity's character. While what presents itself as Christianity is a remarkably robust, adaptable, and energetic phenomenon, capable of significant good but also immense evil, Horsfield observes, it has very little connection with the character, self-understanding, and mission of the Jewish Galilean man called Jesus.Neither Jesus nor his disciples left written records of their ministries, so most of what we know about Jesus comes from the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, all of which were written at least 40 years after the Romans crucified Jesus. Following the work of New Testament scholars John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg, Horsfield describes Jesus as lower class and illiterate, a charismatic Jewish preacher who associated with social outcasts and told stories and parables that challenged the well to do with messages of a righteous God who cared about justice for everyone. Parables and sayings of Jesus were circulated orally and ultimately recorded, but the Gospels appeared well after Paul claimed apostolic authority through visions of Christ and wrote letters that promoted a Hellenized Christianity which were copied and circulated among congregations. Indeed, the Gospels adapted Paul's perspective in framing the ministry of Jesus in terms of the Lord Jesus Christ, a Hellenistic title conceived to appeal to privileged citizens of the Roman Empire.Writing changed everything. Church leadership required literacy, turning what began as an inclusive movement among the underprivileged into an institution of hierarchy. The canon of authorized scriptures favored male leadership. The increasing use of Latin in the West solidified political and social power among a small educated elite, who protected their position and wealth through systems of secrecy, intimidation, and violence. …

Incarnation and shame: Reading Richard Swinburne on Jesus’ “divided mind” in light of Christian phenomenology and T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets

AbstractThis paper examines philosopher Richard Swinburne’s recent account of Jesus’ humanity in order to assess the reasonableness of cognitivist renderings of the religious mystery of Incarnation. Swinburne’s reading is positioned alongside a phenomenological and a literary rendering of this mystery in order to show up the potential limitations of representing Jesus’ Incarnation as a matter of mind, rather than a matter of pathos and embodied weakness. The paper also contrasts Swinburne’s description of mind with recent neurobiological accounts of the mind. Shame is one concept in the literary and philosophical renderings of Incarnation that privileges such affective states as pathos and weakness. Swinburne’s reading of Jesus in terms of “mind”, “consciousness” and what he describes as Jesus’ “divided mind” brackets shame by denying the Incarnate God any possibility of “do[ing] wrong” (45) while admitting that “in the situation of temptation, he [Jesus] could have felt as we do” (45). After reading Swin...

The Cross as a Central Christian Symbol of Injustice

The Cross as a Central Christian Symbol of Injustice

Aquinas on Scripture. Edited by Thomas Weinandy, Daniel Keating, John Yocum

Aquinas on Scripture. Edited by Thomas Weinandy, Daniel Keating, John Yocum

Struggling with Reconciling Hearts and Holding Fast to Our Dreams

This paper is part of a cluster of issues around reconciliation on which I have been working. I begin with the tension between the fact that reconciliation is an unpopular concept in feminist theology, yet in contexts of conflict is the deepest longing as well as a cherished Christian ideal. By focusing on post-genocide Rwanda I am opening up key issues. I then focus on the difficulties associated with `reconciliation' beginning with the fear that it may involve giving up on structural justice. Feminist theology's problems with the concept are explored before re-envisioning the death of Jesus in terms of life-giving love and affirmation of life which is the suggested re-interpretation of sacrifice. This brings us into a meta-patriarchal world where symbols of flourishing replace patriarchal symbols of violence. Reconciliation then is both the goal of healed creation and the path towards it.

Public-Theological Debate—Who Was the Real Jesus?

The purpose of this article is to explain the author’s understanding of the historical Jesus in terms of a “Weberian” ideal type model. The lack of historical evidence of the role of a father in the life of Jesus in early Christian literature from the period prior to 70 CE, including the letters of Paul, the Gospels of Mark and Thomas and the Sayings Source Q, is explicated in a theological, ethical and cultural fashion. The reference to Joseph as Jesus’ father in early Christian literature (which originated after the rift between Jesus followers and Judean adherents to the “Synagogue”) is compared to intertestamental Semitic-Hellenistic literature (such as Josephus, the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and Joseph and Asenath) in which the Joseph-figure functions as a ethical example for believers. From the assumption that Jesus grew up fatherless, references to Jesus’ unconventional allegiance with social outcasts in the New Testament is interpreted from an ideal type of a fatherless child in first-century Herodian Palestine. Such a perspective is labelled as “Christology from the side” and its difference with orthodox Christology is historically explained.

A New Vision for Israel: The Teachings of Jesus in National Context

The most important development in recent historical Jesus studies is the attempt to understand the ministry of Jesus in terms. In calling the nation of Israel to repentance, Jesus served as a national prophet concerned with the salvation of Israel. Scot McKnight furthers this line of inquiry by showing how Jesus' teachings are to be understood in relation to his role as a political figure. McKnight looks closely at Jesus' teachings on God, the kingdom, and ethics, demonstrating in each case how Jesus' mission to restore Israel brings his teachings into a bold new light.

Celsus, Toledot Yeshu and Early Traces of Apology for Virginal Birth of Jesus

In this article New Testament passages referring to the birth of Jesus are related to Celsus’ anti-Christian arguments and the Jewish Toledot Yeshu tradition with a new question: Why it was so difficult to speak about the virgin birth of Jesus? It is argued that the concept of the virgin birth of Jesus was seen to be problematic for two reasons: 1) The concept was liable to result in scurrilous rumours, even scoffing and parodic episodes revolving on its sexual aspects. 2) Every attempt to explain that God was in some way the agent when a young girl conceived came too close to Gen. 6:1–4 – the text which explained in ancient Judaism the origin of the demonic world. Therefore, some New Testament authors (for example, the writer of the Gospel of John) deliberately avoided speaking about the virgin birth and instead presented the birth of Jesus in terms of the idea of an incarnated, personified, divine Wisdom. In order to avoid erroneous connotations relating to Gen. 6:1–4, Matthew and Luke followed a tradition where the Holy Spirit (a feminine word in Hebrew and Aramaic) played an active role in the pregnancy.

Wilhelm Herrmann: A Reassessment

Wilhelm Herrmann remains of importance in present theological debates, particularly those between Bultmann and Barth, two of his most distinguished pupils. Barth's own break with liberal theology was to an extent a break with his teacher Herrmann, a rejection of revelation as essentially the mode of inward appropriation within the religious subject and a rejection of the psychological pragmatism which determines the soteriological significance of Jesus in terms of the moral need of the individual. Barth sees Bultmann as setting forth in existentialist categories the transformation of the inner life of the believer and reminds us of all that Bultmann learned from Herrmann long before he had ever heard of Heidegger. When we consider the distinction drawn by Herrmann between historico-critical research and the certitude of faith, his conception of revelation as event in the life of the individual, his sharp rejection of dogmatics as a normative discipline, we discern motifs which continue to be determinants of Bultmann's theology.

The Theology of Wilhelm Herrmann: A Reassessment

tant in present theological debates, particularly those between Bultmann and Barth, two of his most distinguished pupils. Barth's own break with liberal theology was in part a break with his teacher Herrmann, a rejection of revelation as constituted essentially by its mode of appropriation within the religious subject, and a rejection of the psychological pragmatism which determines the soteriological significance of Jesus in terms of the moral need of the individual. Barth sees Bultmann as setting forth in existentialist categories the transformation of the inner life of the believer and reminds us of all that Bultmann learned from Herrmann long before he