Historical Jesus at SBL - Le Donne

For those of you who will be attending the Society of Biblical Literature meeting in Chicago (Nov 17-20), you might consider attending this historical Jesus section:

Historical Jesus
11/19/2012
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: S502b - McCormick Place

Theme: Jesus beyond the apocalyptic – non-apocalyptic divide: options and openings

Robert Miller, Juniata College, Presiding
Robert Miller, Juniata College, Introduction (5 min)
Anthony Le Donne, Lincoln Christian University University of the Pacific
Jesus and the Problem of Epochal Romanticism (25 min)
Pieter Craffert, University of South Africa
What Are Apocalyptic Gospel Texts Evidence For? (25 min)
James Crossley, University of Sheffield
Jesus and the World Turned Upside Down…and Back Again (25 min)
Thomas Kazen, Stockholm School of Theology
Apocalypticism as world view and linguistic metaphor: Attempting a cognitive approach to Jesus’ utopian language (25 min)
Stephen Patterson, Willamette University, Respondent (25 min)
Discussion (20 min)

I was honored to be invited to present in this themed section. Here is my abstract for this paper:

This essay will situate Wrede, Schweitzer and other early adherents of the “Jesus as Apocalyptic Prophet” thesis within German Romanticism and suggest that this view of history defined much of the vernacular for modern Jesus studies. It will then examine an often overlooked element of the Jesus tradition, what this study will call Jesus’ “greater than” rhetoric. In doing so, the author will (largely) avoid the terms “prophet,” “apocalyptic,” and “eschatological” for heuristic purposes. Thus this essay will explore the possibility of epochal aggrandizement in the Jesus tradition without hinging the notion on the vernacular of Romanticism.

I will also be presenting in the other section of the HJ unit... more on that in a later post.

-anthony