The Real Jesus: The Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus and the Truth of the Traditional Go
Finally, a passionately argued but fair response to the Jesus Seminar (The Five Gospels, LJ 2/15/94) from an established scholar. Johnson has a double purpose: to provide an outspoken but courteous critique of the output of this small minority of mostly second-line scholars and to address the confusion in the church over the relationship between history and faith. These scholars are joined by a large number of amateurs using the same clearly defective methodology to bypass the scholarly process for a highly effective public relations "culture war" in the news media and publishing industry. They commonly claim to have previously unknown or suppressed data, usually a nonliteral or symbolic interpretation of the Gospels to produce "history" and promote provocative conclusions that would force radical reinterpretation or rejection of traditional Christianity. This book should be in any religious collection to help provide balance to the current historical Jesus literature. It could well be supplemented by The Jesus Quest (InterVarsity, 1995), an excellent survey of the full range of "historical Jesus" literature. Highly recommended.?Eugene O. Bowser, Univ. of Northern Colorado, GreeleyCopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.