Jesus Studies Research Articles

The Narratives of the Gospels and the Historical Jesus: Current Debates, Prior Debates and the Goal of Historical Jesus Research

The article argues that current debates over method in historical Jesus studies reveal two competing ‘models’ for how to use the gospel tradition in order to approach the historical Jesus. These models differ over their treatments of the narrative frameworks of the gospels and, concomitantly, their views of the development of the Jesus tradition. A first model, inspired by form criticism and still advocated today, attempts to attain a historical Jesus ‘behind’ the interpretations of early Christians. A second model, inspired by advances in historiography and memory theory, posits a historical Jesus who is ultimately unattainable, but can be hypothesized on the basis of the interpretations of the early Christians, and as part of a larger process of accounting for how and why early Christians came to view Jesus in the ways that they did. Advocating the latter approach to the historical Jesus and responding to previous criticism, this article argues further that these two models are methodologically and epistemologically incompatible. It therefore challenges the suggestion that one can affirm the goals of the second model while maintaining the methods of the first model.

Jesus and the Historians by Alexander J. M. Wedderburn

In the present volume one of the senior figures of European NT studies addresses crucial issues in the study of the historical Jesus. He examines the methods and presuppositions applied in this quest, which are often more assumed than explicit. Wedderburn’s point of departure is the observation and claim by some that a decisive change in the understanding of historical knowledge and historical method has occurred or is occurring which abandons the assumptions of modernity and embraces postmodern notions of history. Against this backdrop, Wedderburn surveys major and/or representative contributions to the recent study of the historical Jesus in the hope that confronting historical theories and epistemologies with the concrete requirements and problems of this particular historical study of the life of Jesus may help to shed light on their strengths and weaknesses, particularly if one bears in mind the repeated lament that the theorists and philosophers are out of touch with the practice of historians. The theorists and philosophers, of course, reply by accusing the historians of a lack of reflection on what they are doing.

The Gospel According to Renan: Reading, Writing, and Religion in Nineteenth-Century France by Robert D. Priest

Gospel According to Renan: Reading, Writing, and Religion in Nineteenth-Century France. By Robert D. Priest. (New York: Oxford University Press. 2015. Pp. xii, 265. $110.00. ISBN 978-0-19-872875-7.)Robert D. Priest presents here Ernest Renan as Catholic seminarian, philologist, Semitics scholar, professor, and traveling erudit, and his book La Vie de (Paris, 1863) as a contribution to the nineteenth-century historical study of Jesus; the book portrayed a unique and wonderful religious leader, divinized to his detriment by the churches. author deals with the debates, acrimonious and otherwise, that followed publication, involving Renan directly as well as his defenders and adversaries. Priest also discusses Renan's audience that encompassed intellectuals, church people, and admirers whose religious and cultural lives were transformed by Renan and his Jesus, as well as Renan's legacy and the changes in nineteenthand twentieth-century French and European religious sentiment that occurred due to Renan's life and work.Renan, born into the very Catholic Breton culture of the nineteenth century and a sincere seminarian early on, produced an ingenious desacralization of the bib- lical text: There was an irrepressibly Catholic character to various editions of the Vie de Jesus, which sought in different ways to intercede between ordinary believers and the biblical text (p. 14). Renan wrote ofJesus, have felt him, I have touched him, he is my friend (cited on p. 27). This personal and intellectual stance was undergirded by his travels in Palestine, where, he said, The Gospel as a real book had its perfect commentary (cited on p. 54, emphasis in original). His ensuing work brought him appointment to the College de France, and responses to his appointment and his opening lecture marked the beginning of the passionate controversies that surrounded the man and his work ever after.For Renan, brought about a cultural and moral revolution that could only be explained by a uniquely inspiring and imposing personality. Renan rejected both miracles and divinity, but here he worked with historical explanations to counter any philosophical dismissals of the man. Only extended study of Christianity-its Jewish roots and its oriental qualities-could explain Jesus. Priest deals delicately with Renan's emphasis on the gentle, sexually contained, virtually androgynous appeal to both men and women: Jesus offered a model of male heroism that was grounded in celibacy and feminine sensitivity (p. 100); he created a morality of idealism and transcendence that churches ever afterward were unable to institutionalize.With a review of pamphlets, reviews, and newspaper articles, Priest provides a history of subsequent debates. While churchmen and conservative Catholics (such as ultramontanists, those fundamentalists of papal authority) were rabidly antiRenan-after all, he denied the divinity ofJesus-secular academics and other commentators were divided on the virtues and faults of the book. …

Christology: origins, developments, debates

The study of Jesus remains central to Christianity. Who was and is Jesus? and What has he done for us and for our world? are crucial questions that demand careful consideration and perennial answers. These Christological questions reach to the heart of Christian identity both in its understanding of itself and in its relation to other world religions. In Christology: Origins, Developments, Debates, Gerald O Collins continues his groundbreaking work in Christology by first tracing its major developments over the last fifty years. He next turns to a of resurrection Christology s central event and the foundational roles played by its two great witnesses, Peter and Paul. O Collins then masterfully constructs a theology of religions that explores the relationship of Christianity to other living faiths precisely in light of the priesthood of Jesus Christ. In this volume, O Collins engages the riches of the tradition and the challenges of the present to aid scholars and students alike who wish to grasp the centrality of the second person of the Trinity to the Christian faith.

Being Interpreted by the Parables

N.T. Wright’s historical Jesus work, along with his approach to New Testament studies generally, is informed by a hermeneutic grounded in a critically realistic epistemology. This latter can appropriately be considered a hermeneutical epistemology, and its impact on both Jesus studies and parables interpretation is evident in Wright’s work. It is of course grounded in the cognitional theory of Bernard Lonergan, but may be furthered by the holistic historiography derived from observations of R.G. Collingwood, as well as the phenomenological-hermeneutical tradition represented by Heidegger and Gadamer, and ultimately the application to biblical hermeneutics by Ricoeur. Lonergan’s ‘world mediated by meaning’ and Heidegger’s ‘mode-of-being-in-the-world’ both make knowledge radically hermeneutical; Ricoeur’s world-projection in the narrative sees the narrative parable’s function as world-encompassing, similar to Wright’s worldview-subversion. All of these have in common that they are irreducibly participatory or hermeneutical.

A Search for a Political Thought of Justice in the Age of Empire through a Comparative Study of Jesus and Choi Jea Woo

A Search for a Political Thought of Justice in the Age of Empire through a Comparative Study of Jesus and Choi Jea Woo

Memory and historical Jesus studies: <i>Formgeschichte </i> in a new dress?

In the quest for the historical Jesus, memory studies are seen as an important breakthrough in the study of the historical Jesus and the way forward in establishing the historicity of the Gospel traditions. This article evaluates the claim made by memory studies by evaluating memory studies’ critique on the methodology of the criteria approach. In this evaluation attention is given to the methodological points of departure of memory studies, including an assessment of the few examples memory studies thus far have produced in their investigation of the historicity of the Gospels and the historical Jesus. The conclusion reached is that memory studies are guilty of what they accuse the criteria approach, and thus far have not yet offered a viable methodological alternative to the current criteria approach used in historical Jesus research.

Resources on the Historical Study of Jesus - Ten Years Later

Resources on the Historical Study of Jesus - Ten Years Later

Jesus against the scribal elite: the origins of the conflict

How did the controversy between Jesus and the scribal elite begin? We know that it ended on a cross, but what put Jesus on the radar of established religious and political leaders in the first place? Chris Keith argues that, in addition to concerns over what Jesus taught and perhaps even how he taught, a crucial aspect of the rising conflict concerned his very status as a teacher. Addressing an overlooked aspect in Jesus studies, this fresh and provocative work is the first book-length treatment of the origins of the controversy between Jesus and the scribal authorities. It exposes the broader significance of Keith's highly regarded technical work on the literacy of Jesus.

The Domain and Function of Epistemological Humility in Historical Jesus Studies

The epistemological humility proper to methodological naturalism is the suspension of belief in divine causation, and by entailment, of the belief that events that violate the laws of nature sometimes occur. Epistemological humility does not, however, require the suspension of knowledge of how the world works, i.e., of the laws of nature. Methodological naturalism, therefore, requires us to reject the literal truth of reports in ancient texts of events that we know to be physically impossible, regardless of whether a text attributes such events to divine causality. Reports about the deeds of Jesus are not exempt from this methodological restriction. Methodological naturalism, and the epistemological humility it subsumes, therefore, requires that historians deny, for example, that the historical Jesus (the human Jesus as reconstructed by critical historiography) literally walked on water. Since epistemological humility does not require the suspension of knowledge about how the world works, but only of belief in divine causation, it therefore does not require that one hold open the possibility that the historical Jesus walked on water, since that possibility is incompatible with naturalism (both ontological and methodological).

Miracles, Jesus, and Identity: A History of Research regarding Jesus and Miracles with Special Attention to the Gospel of Mark

To write a comprehensive history of research regarding miracle narratives and the Gospels that is also reasonably sized would itself be miraculous. This article attempts to present a history of literature that is faithful to the wealth of research about miracles and Jesus, but at the same time focuses directly on studies most relevant to the narrative of the Gospel of Mark in its final form. The development of miracle studies has multiple facets and has been approached in a variety of disparate ways. In order to facilitate the clearest history of research, the article has placed relevant works into five major categories: history of religions and the theios anē r debate; historical Jesus studies; the miracle, medicine, and magic discussion; comparative, literary, and other studies; and miracles in Mark and the identity of Jesus. Each of these categories are designed to review the history of secondary scholarship regarding Jesus, miracles, and the identity of Jesus as a miracle-worker with special attention to the Gospel of Mark.

'Very' Self-Conscious Jesus

Beside his scholarly contributions to understanding Jesus, early Christian discourses and Jewish law, James Crossley has developed an influential toolkit for critical reflection on the unavoidable ideological embededness of scholarshp on Jesus. Most recently he has exposed the deep permeation of historical studies of Jesus with the neoliberal discourse in which scholars and their institutions operate. Crossley provides a compelling mirror for his readers, but cannot entirely guide us as to why we choose to look and what we hope and fear to see there.

Placing Neoliberal Jesuses

This essay attempts to further James Crossley's project in Jesus in an Age of Neoliberalism by proposing the development of a literature on how historical Jesus scholars construct neoliberal geographical formations. Reviewing the discipline of human geography, this proposal suggests that biblical scholars move beyond examining geographical contexts for texts to show how historical Jesus studies actively make place. This approach is demonstrated through a brief case study of historical Jesus scholarship constructing and contesting the secular public sphere in post-handover Hong Kong, especially in the recent Occupy Central debate.

New directions in Jesus studies

Insights into how social memory functions within oral communities challenge some of the presuppositions informing established approaches to Gospel exegesis while opening up new ones. Focusing on one saying, ‘Your faith has saved you’, this article attempts to put some of these insights into practice.

The Miraculous in the New Testament: Current Research and Issues

Defining the miraculous, the adequacy of the Western mindset to comprehend human experience, and the ability of the historian to establish the occurrence of a miracle, are issues threaded through study of the miraculous. Current work draws attention to our lack of understanding of the miraculous in the period. So far, research on Jesus has not explained his interest in miracles, their meaning, or how they relate to his other work and self-perception. Also, the nature miracles remain a problem, and a critical study of Jesus remains to be written that takes full account of the evidence of his miracles. More work needs to be done on Paul’s understanding of the miraculous. Further, despite studies on individual stories, insufficient work has been done on the miraculous from the perspective of the Gospel writers. Finally, how far early Christianity can be understood without due regard for the miraculous is open to question.

The Benefit of Expanding the Cultural, Scientific and Religious Frontiers of Historical Jesus Research

This article reviews Gesù il ‘Nazareno’. Indagine storica (Jesus the Nazarene: A Historical Investigation) by Rinaldo Fabris. It compares this volume with the main studies of the historical Jesus that have been published in the past fifteen years. A brief description of each of its thirteen chapters is accompanied by a discussion of the main strengths and weaknesses of the book.

Jesus as a figure in history: how modern historians view the man from Galilee

Here is the first comprehensive, balanced account of historical Jesus studies. Beginning with brief discussions of the early days of historical research into the person of Jesus and the methods developed by researchers at the time, Mark Allen Powell offers insightful overviews of some of the most important participants in the contemporary Jesus quests.

Historical Critical Interpretation is not (Necessarily) Critical Historical Interpretation: Taking Account of the Oral/Aural Conditions of the First-Century Mediterranean World

ABSTRACTIn this article three aspects regarding the oral/aural conditions of the first-century Mediterranean world that are raised by the publication of Pieter Botha's book, Orality and Literacy in Early Christianity, are discussed. The first is the definitional and conceptual clarification that is needed in the debate. Secondly, it situates the discussion within the framework of orality-scribality-memory studies as they are related to the study of the historical Jesus and the Gospel traditions. Finally, it is argued that the oral/aural conditions impacts on the kind of historiography that characterises historical Jesus and Gospel research. It is suggested that in view of these conditions, some of the basic assumptions of historical criticism need to be critically evaluated.

‘The Duty of Discontent’: Some Remarks on Pieter F. Craffert’s The Life of a Galilean Shaman: Jesus of Nazareth in Anthropological-Historical Perspective

This essay commends Pieter Craffert’s book “The Life of a Galilean shaman” as an important contribution in the field of Jesus studies. At the same time it reveals that Crafferts attempt to identify Jesus as a Galilean shaman is problematic, particularly considering the enigmatic nature of the category “shaman.” Western discourse on shamanism tends to contain an unwelcome mix of exoticism, alienation, and fascination; transferring this model to the life of Jesus is in danger of applying anachronistic and ethnocentric notions to the historical Jesus, not to mention the difficulties involved in verifying the supposed treatment of shamanic ASC-experiences in the New Testament texts. Although Crafferts new methodological approach of “anthropological historiography”, independent of the shamanism thesis, deserves scholarly attention, his employment of it shows an all too rigid, and ultimately counterproductive, rejection of classic historical-critical scholarship.

Everybody’s Happy Nowadays? A Critical Engagement with Key Events and Contemporary Quests for the Historical Jesus

Key Events is clearly a major contribution to historical Jesus studies from a broadly evangelical perspective. While there is much to commend and a number of strong essays, there are, inevitably criticisms to be made. A number of arguments appear to be repeating debates from the 1980s and 1990s with a familiar cast of good (e.g. N.T. Wright), bad (e.g. Burton Mack, Jesus Seminar) and ambivalent (e.g. E.P. Sanders) characters. This nostalgic feel means that alternative understandings of the historical Jesus and wider issues of history and historical change are not properly discussed, although clearly the opportunities were present among the contributors of Key Events. There is a sustained discussion of historical change in the chapter on resurrection but this repeats problematic arguments in favour of the historicity of the resurrection in what is effectively an attempt to prove what is historically unprovable. Finally, to lesser or greater extent, a number of essays in Key Events continue to perpetuate the idea of a ‘Jewish … but not that Jewish’ Jesus through monolithic constructions of Jews and Judaism and through the discredited criterion of dissimilarity in disguise: double dissimilarity. It is not always clear that the problematic criterion of double dissimilarity is applied consistently, with some evidence of contributors forgetting aspects of dissimilarity from Christianity while never forgetting dissimilarity from Judaism (even when similar Jewish evidence is, in fact, available). These criticisms should not take away from a number of positive contributions made to historical Jesus studies and it may be that Key Events represents a vision of what most historical Jesus scholars see as the future of the sub-field.