I've found this discussion very interesting.
-anthony
Baker Academic
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Happy Birthday Michael!
Did you know that Martin Luther King Jr. was born "Michael King Jr."?
In honor of the Mike of history and the Martin of faith,
here is an excerpt from my Historical Jesus:
In honor of the Mike of history and the Martin of faith,
here is an excerpt from my Historical Jesus:
Book Giveaway: Jesus’ Literacy: Scribal Culture and the Teacher from Galilee—Chris Keith
THIS GIVEAWAY HAS BEEN COMPLETED:
No more entries will be accepted.
As mentioned earlier, my monograph Jesus’ Literacy: Scribal Culture and theTeacher from Galilee will be out in paperback at the end of March according to T&T Clark, the publishers. To my knowledge, this is the first full book-length treatment of the topic. For those who are interested in the topic, the paperback edition should be welcomed news because the hardback costs $100. Fortunately, though, T&T Clark is a great press with great editors, and they’ve decided to let us give away a hardback copy here on The Jesus Blog.
No more entries will be accepted.
As mentioned earlier, my monograph Jesus’ Literacy: Scribal Culture and theTeacher from Galilee will be out in paperback at the end of March according to T&T Clark, the publishers. To my knowledge, this is the first full book-length treatment of the topic. For those who are interested in the topic, the paperback edition should be welcomed news because the hardback costs $100. Fortunately, though, T&T Clark is a great press with great editors, and they’ve decided to let us give away a hardback copy here on The Jesus Blog.
You know the rules. You can enter in four ways: (1) comment here; (2) share this webpage on facebook, then comment to let us know you did; (3) sign up to follow, then comment to let us know you did; (4) tweet this webpage, then comment to let us know you did. We’ll announce the winner in a couple weeks!
Review of My Jesusbuch from a Dialogical Perspective - Le Donne
The always interesting and entertaining Larry Behrendt reviews my dainty, little book here.
I plan to chime in on his blog later this week.
-anthony
Baker Academic's Blog
Baker Academic is proud to launch a new blog in an effort to encourage conversation within the academy and Church as an extension of our publishing program. Our goal has always been to further the pursuit of knowledge and understanding within the context of Christian faith. It is our hope that the Baker Academic Blog will serve this goal faithfully by providing a new venue for our authors and readers to express ideas and think critically.
The Baker Academic Blog will feature author interviews, book announcements, promotional videos, original posts by our authors, and the occasional giveaway. In its inaugural week, look for a post by Gordon Wenham on the importance of the Psalms, an interview with Craig Keener about his book Miracles, and a giveaway of some of our books recently featured in several “Best of the Year” lists. In the coming weeks the blog will feature original posts from J. R. Daniel Kirk, Patrick Gray, and Bruce Fisk as well as interviews with James K. A. Smith, Helen Rhee, and others.
Visit the Baker Academic Blog at http://blog.bakeracademic.com.
You can also follow us on Twitter (@BakerAcademic) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/BakerAcademic).
TRINITY GRAESER
The Baker Academic Blog will feature author interviews, book announcements, promotional videos, original posts by our authors, and the occasional giveaway. In its inaugural week, look for a post by Gordon Wenham on the importance of the Psalms, an interview with Craig Keener about his book Miracles, and a giveaway of some of our books recently featured in several “Best of the Year” lists. In the coming weeks the blog will feature original posts from J. R. Daniel Kirk, Patrick Gray, and Bruce Fisk as well as interviews with James K. A. Smith, Helen Rhee, and others.
Visit the Baker Academic Blog at http://blog.bakeracademic.com.
You can also follow us on Twitter (@BakerAcademic) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/BakerAcademic).
TRINITY GRAESER
Monday, January 14, 2013
The Jesus Quest: A Longer View - Le Donne
In my first post on this subject, I pointed you to a few different resources that argue against the "Three Quests" paradigm. I can see that more needs to be said based on a few comments. Jesus Blog friend Larry writes:
As I see it, the existing paradigm assumes that the three biggest moments in the modern study of HJ are Schweitzer, Kasemann, and the realization that Jesus was really Jewish. I think an argument can be made that these really ARE the three biggest moments, but a problem with paradigms is that once you buy in, it's hard to critically analyze the assumptions behind them.
It must be pointed out that the first Quest (as the narrative goes) did not begin with Schweitzer, but with Reimarus/Lessing. Schweitzer has sometimes been associated with the so-called "No Quest" years due to his seemingly definitive work on Jesus. We must then acknowledge that scholars continue to push the "Old Quest" earlier and earlier as our history of research expands. Schweitzer acknowledges a couple forerunners himself. Others have pointed to the English deists... then we push further back to Spinoza and (if one keeps pushing), we find that the "Old Quest" was simply not the "First Quest". This, in itself, explodes the paradigm. If the quest for the historical Jesus begins with Josephus, or Origen, or Augustine, or the Talmud and continues through the Middle Ages in Jewish-Christian polemic, debate and dialogue, we need a broader view.
If the recognition that the historical Jesus was the "Jewish Jesus" from Josephus (or Augustine) onward, this steals considerable thunder from the "Third Quest" years and it makes Bultmann's contribution to Quests less dubious. After all, Bultmann's Jesus was Jewish. So it seems that the "Jesus the Jew" thesis doesn't belong any sort of "Third Quest" after all. Perhaps then, the enormously productive period from 1973-2000(ish) was simply a recovery from Kähler's "suprahistorical Jesus" and Käsemann s "less Jewish Jesus".
If the recognition that the historical Jesus was the "Jewish Jesus" from Josephus (or Augustine) onward, this steals considerable thunder from the "Third Quest" years and it makes Bultmann's contribution to Quests less dubious. After all, Bultmann's Jesus was Jewish. So it seems that the "Jesus the Jew" thesis doesn't belong any sort of "Third Quest" after all. Perhaps then, the enormously productive period from 1973-2000(ish) was simply a recovery from Kähler's "suprahistorical Jesus" and Käsemann s "less Jewish Jesus".
Saturday, January 12, 2013
How Jesusy is the Jesus Blog? - Le Donne
I'm not the sort to obsess over blog traffic, but I check my stats from time to time. I hadn't checked for a while and then I found something peculiar... something that I've puzzled over numerous times since we launched this blog. From midnight to 2 AM (yes, this is exactly the sort of thing that I do at 2 AM), the google searches that directed folks to this blog were:
Now, the internets are a mysterious and magical place(s). One cannot be sure what they're thinking or when they will take over and turn against humanity creating the need for Arnold Schwarzenegger to travel back in time to become the governor of California. Even though four searches associated Chris and I with "historical Jesus nerds blog", I am happy to say that we are not nerdy enough to know how all of these zeros and ones work. But, and this is the peculiar part, are we Jesusy enough?
I'd like to think that we are. Chris posts once a week and almost always relates his posts to Jesus research in some way. I post ten or more times a week and (I would guess) relate over 70% of my posts to Jesus research, Jesus cultural, Jesus portraits, Jesus people etc. Yet the Dr. Brown / Cedarville University debacle continues to drive traffic to this site. I think I might have posted on the firing twice in the four months since this blog launched. I have to tell you that I support Michael Pahl and will do whatever I can to help his transition (limited resources that I have at my disposal), but I've tried my best to make this project about something other than the latest heresy trial.
Can somebody please tell me what to make of this information? Is the Cedarville University controversy more interesting than the Jesus' Wife Gospel, or the LCU thing, or the Emmanuel thing? I know that controversy sells, but why do I consistently find my google searches dominated by this particular controversy?
-anthony
Now, the internets are a mysterious and magical place(s). One cannot be sure what they're thinking or when they will take over and turn against humanity creating the need for Arnold Schwarzenegger to travel back in time to become the governor of California. Even though four searches associated Chris and I with "historical Jesus nerds blog", I am happy to say that we are not nerdy enough to know how all of these zeros and ones work. But, and this is the peculiar part, are we Jesusy enough?
I'd like to think that we are. Chris posts once a week and almost always relates his posts to Jesus research in some way. I post ten or more times a week and (I would guess) relate over 70% of my posts to Jesus research, Jesus cultural, Jesus portraits, Jesus people etc. Yet the Dr. Brown / Cedarville University debacle continues to drive traffic to this site. I think I might have posted on the firing twice in the four months since this blog launched. I have to tell you that I support Michael Pahl and will do whatever I can to help his transition (limited resources that I have at my disposal), but I've tried my best to make this project about something other than the latest heresy trial.
Can somebody please tell me what to make of this information? Is the Cedarville University controversy more interesting than the Jesus' Wife Gospel, or the LCU thing, or the Emmanuel thing? I know that controversy sells, but why do I consistently find my google searches dominated by this particular controversy?
-anthony
Friday, January 11, 2013
Quarterly Quote of the Month about Jesus for this Week
He took me by the hand; led me far from this land
Jesus, he's my friend
Jesus is just alright with me, Jesus is just alright, oh yeah
Jesus is just alright with me, Jesus is just alright
~The Doobie Brothers
Thursday, January 10, 2013
What Does It Mean to Say that Jesus Was Jewish? (Part 2) - Le Donne
Part one of this series can be found here.
One of the oft repeated caricatures of first-century Judaism is that "they" were expecting a militaristic messiah (notice the monolithic "they" - I put it in quote so that you'd notice, but I thought I'd point it out with a long parenthetical comment as well... how am I doing?). But the first thing that "they" teach you as a Ph.D. candidate is that there are only a handful of things that you can say with confidence about "most" Jews living in Judea around the time of Jesus. So before I go further, let me just kick a dead horse: stop saying "the Jews believed..." without qualification. Nothing betrays the inefficacy of historical nuance in most Christian seminaries more than this mistake. Now to the topic: were most Jews expecting a militaristic messiah?
We we know that some first-century Jews hoped for the end of foreign domination. We know that some (circa first-century) Jews were quite willing to use military force. We know that many Jews hoped for a messiah. We know that some Jews hoped for multiple messiahs. We know that many Jews associated the coming of the messiah in some way with the installation of God's final judgment. And we know that many Jews held combinations of some and/or all of the above.
Welcome Lois Loban Stuckenbruck!
I was happy to learn that Lois (you may have read over 100 of her husband's articles) has launched a blog. It is called Truth with Mercy. I will be a regular reader and certainly be a better person for it. Welcome Lois!
-anthony
-anthony
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