The British Jesus focuses on the Jesus of the religious culture dominant in Britain from the 1850s through the 1950s, the popular Christian culture shared by not only church, kirk, and chapel goers, but also the growing numbers of Britons who rarely or only episodically entered a house of worship. An essay in intellectual as well as cultural history, this book illumines the interplay between and among British New Testament scholarship, institutional Christianity, and the wider Protestant culture. The scholars who mapped and led the uniquely British quest for the historical Jesus in the first half of the twentieth century were active participants in efforts to replace the popular image of "Jesus in a white nightie" with a stronger figure, and so, they hoped, to preserve Britain's Christian identity. They failed. By exploring that failure, and more broadly, by examining the relations and exchanges between popular, artistic, and scholarly portrayals of Jesus, this book highlights the continuity and the conservatism of Britain's popular Christianity through a century of religious and cultural transformation. Exploring depictions of Jesus from over more than one hundred years, this book is a crucial resource for scholars of British Christianity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Jerome Murphy-O'Connor has lived in Jerusalem for 48 years, during which time he has taught graduate students its history and archaeology, and also compiled a bestselling archaeological guidebook for visitors. The current volume provides an initial survey of the history, archaeology and theology of Jerusalem, but the twelve articles that make up the body of the book deal with problems that the author feels have not been given a satisfactory solution. Thus Murphy-O'Connor discusses the precise location of a number of important buildings, i.e. the Temple, the Antonia and the Capitol and also treat of events in the life of Jesus that are located in Jerusalem; his dispute with the money-changers in the Temple, his agony in the garden of Gethsemane, his route from Pilate to Golgotha. The previously unpublished chapters dealing with the Christian Quarter are perhaps the most original. They describe the creation of the Christian Quarter in 1063 and define its limits relative to the present Old City. Its two most important buildings, the Holy Sepulchre and the great Hospital of the Knights of St John, are treated in great detail. The concluding chapter is a classified bibliography of sources for the study of Jerusalem. Thoughtfully illustrated with maps, photographs, and diagrams, this book is a mine of information for specialists working on Jerusalem, and for the interested reader with some prior knowledge of this fascinating and complex city.

Jesus's words in John 17 represent one of the church's highest values quot;May they all be one as you and I Father are one.quot; Yet divisions occur from the highest levels of the church to street level projects often neutralizing effectiveness and undercutting the credibility of Jesus's message. This book helps any believer turn the ideal of John 17 into reality. It provides solid grounding in the principles of partnership abundant case histories and empowering quot;how toquot; suggestions for lay person and ministry leader alike.

** DeVorss Publications edition (9780875161686) is in it's 20th PRINTING **

The Story of Jesus, the Man from Galilee, and How He Attained the Christ Consciousness Open to ALL.

THE AQUARIAN GOSPEL OF JESUS THE CHRIST is a far-reaching work that brings to light the intimate details of Christ's life upon which the New Testament gospels are silent, written from the original Akashic Records by a student who devoted forty years to prepare for the task.

This unique book is practically a complete record of the words and works of the Man of Galilee, including his eighteen years of study and travel in the Orient. It covers his life from birth in Bethlehem to his ascension from the Mount of Olives.

Of special interest and value are the full and intimate details concerning his life during the eighteen years spent in travel among the snow-bound monasteries of Tibet, the stately structures of Egypt, the mysterious temples of India, Persia, and Greece, a period when he walked and talked with monks, wise men, and seers throughout the Orient.

Transcribed from the Book of God's Remembrance Known as the Akashic Records

Since the dawn of film in the 1890s, religious themes and biblical subjects have been a staple of cinema. One of the earliest focuses of screen presentations was the Bible, especially the New Testament and the Gospels. In Screen Jesus: Portrayals of Christ in Television and Film, Peter Malone takes a close look at films in which Jesus is depicted. From silent renditions of The Passion Play to 21st-century blockbusters like The Passion of the Christ, Malone examines how the history of Jesus films reflects the changes in artistic styles and experiments in cinematic forms for more than a century. In addition to providing a historical overview of the Jesus films, this book also reveals the changes in piety and in theological understandings of the humanity and divinity of Jesus over the decades. While most of the Jesus films come from the United States and the west, an increasing number of Jesus films come from other cultures, which are also included in this study. Fans and scholars interested in the history of religious cinema will find this an interesting read, as will students and teachers in cinema and religious studies, church pastors, parish groups, and youth ministry.

This 1997 book presents in readable, non-technical language the findings of scholarship on one important aspect of 'who Jesus was' - the many reports in the New Testament and other early Christian writings that Jesus performed healings. The book paints a picture of the sick and sickness in Jesus' world and the means available to deal with sickness. It shows how Jesus as healer fits - and doesn't fit - into that world. We see him as one of the many healers of his day, but set apart as a 'wounded healer' who in his own death achieves the ultimate 'healing', victory over death. In addressing the question 'did Jesus really heal?' the author provides readers with resources from biblical scholarship, medicine, sociology and anthropology to help arrive at their own answers to the question. The suggestions for further reading as well as the questions for discussion make this book ideal both for personal reading and for group study.

This book attempts to read the character of Mary in the infancy narratives of Luke and Matthew alongside the lives of experiences of the Indian surrogate mother living a postcolonial India. Reading Mary through these lenses helps us see this mother and her actions in a more ambivalent light, as a mother whose love is both violent and altruistic.

This volume completes the previous volumes 1, 2, 3a, 3b, and 4a of an interdisciplinary book project on the reception of Jesus Christ in China, as seen from the perspectives of Sinology, mission history, theology, and art history, among others. It consists of the following parts: A "Supplementary Anthology" that presents excerpts and longer quotations from selected works - such as translations, prayers, poems, and scholarly articles - listed in the bibliography of vol. 4a; two sections of "Notes on Contributors, Vols. 1-3b" and "Notes on Authors of the Anthologies, Vols. 1-3b, 4b" that provide short biographical information on the contributors of articles and authors of all texts in the anthologies; a "List of Reviews of Vols. 1-4a" published on the whole collection as well as on individual volumes; the Tables of Contents of vols. 1, 2, 3a, 3b and 4a; a "General Index and Glossary" that gives readers access to all articles and anthologies included in vols. 1, 2, 3a, 3b, and 4b, a corpus of almost two thousand pages of text; and finally a list of "Errata and Corrigenda."

This book is of particular interest to scholars whose interest is in New Testament, historical Jesus, hermeneutics and historiography study. Donald Denton refers to the emergence of distinct approaches to historical Jesus studies, which are based on similarly distinct conceptions of the historiographic enterprise and how it relates to basic hermeneutical concerns. Trends have developed in Jesus studies that can be categorized in terms of these historiographic and hermeneutical issues. An understanding of these trends will help the observer of, and participant in, historical Jesus studies to sort through the surplus of current options from a basis of informed decisions about the root issues that guide historical investigation. This is volume 1 in the Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus Supplement Series and Volume 262 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series.

Jesus of Nazareth is arguably the most famous and influential human being who has ever lived on earth. In the Historical Dictionary of Jesus, author Daniel J. Harrington delves into the ancient literary sources about Jesus, modern methods of approaching these sources, the major events in Jesus' life, persons and places associated with him, the form and content of his teachings, what can be said about his death and the claim that he was raised from the dead, and the contributions of major modern scholars to the quest of the historical Jesus. The book consists of three parts: an introduction to the major topics pertaining to Jesus as a historical figure; a cross-referenced dictionary containing 400 entries on a range of topics, including things Jesus did and said, ancient sources of historical data, and modern scholarship and interpretation; and a bibliography listing some of the most important books related to Jesus and the world in which he lived. This concise and objective reference work provides a clear and accurate introduction to the study of Jesus as a historical figure.

Bryan combines literary, historical, and theological approaches in this study of the doctrine of the Resurrection. In the first part of the book, the author provides a careful and sympathetic description of first-century Jewish and pagan opinions and beliefs about death and what might follow. He then presents a general account of early Christian claims about the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. In the second part, Bryan offers a detailed, full-length commentary on and exegesis of the main New Testament texts that speak of Jesus' death and resurrection: 1 Corinthians 15 and the narratives in the four canonical gospels. In the third part, Bryan discusses and evaluates various proposals that have been made by those attempting to explain the data in ways that differ from the traditional Christian explanation. Finally, Bryan asks, "So what?" and considers various theological and ethical implications of accepting the claim "Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead." Throughout his study, Bryan exhibits a willingness to face hard questions as well as an appropriate reverence for a faith that for almost two thousand years has enabled millions of people to lead lives of meaning and grace.

Jean-Luc Nancy and Christian Thought explores Nancy's deconstruction of Christianity via the various bodies of Christ that accumulate in Christian doctrine, specifically the incarnated body, the resurrected body, and the body of Christ the church. The work ties Nancy's deconstruction to the writings of the early church, demonstrating that the seeds of auto-deconstruction are indeed sown in the doctrines of Western Christianity. It then provides brief sketches of current theological works that touch upon similar deconstructive themes. Thus, the work aims to flesh out Nancy's deconstruction for the non-theologian, tying his complex scans of Christian thought to early patristics, and also aims to help theologians unfamiliar with deconstruction or with Nancy's work recognize the value of the deconstructive method for unpacking Christian doctrine and practice. This book will be of interest to philosophers of religion, hermeneutics, and post-Frankfort School critical theory, and theologians interested in current French philosophy of religion.

Was Leonardo Da Vinci a member of the 'Priory of Sion', a secret society reaching all the way back to the Crusades" Does his famous painting, "The Last Supper", contain a hidden code about this society's most precious secret? Did Jesus father children by Mary Magdalene? What was the Holy Grail? The best-selling novel "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown has stirred the popular imagination by cleverly interweaving theories about such questions with a fast-paced fictional narrative. Many readers have been so swept away by the drama of this murder mystery that they have accepted Brown's fictional reconstruction of Christian origins and medieval history as established fact. New Testament scholar Robert M. Price, a member of the prestigious Jesus Seminar, examines the creative uses of history in Brown's novel, showing that, however intriguing Brown's fictional speculations may be, the real facts behind the novel are even more fascinating. What does the best historical evidence say about the possibility that Jesus might have survived the crucifixion? How did the Gospels come to be accepted as the established accounts of Jesus' life and why were other Gnostic traditions suppressed? How did the Roman Emperor Constantine figure in the development of Christian dogma? What was Mary Magdalene's role in early Christianity and how was it adapted in later attempts to develop a 'sacred feminine' element in Christianity? These are some of the important questions about Christianity that Dr. Price pursues in this engrossing discussion of Christian history. Price combines sophisticated historical analysis with completely accessible and witty prose in this enlightening, factually based analysis of Brown's speculative bestseller.

Why Jesus’s historic and cultural influence makes him fascinating, provocative, and relevant for everyone, not only Christians.

Two thousand years after his birth and death, Jesus of Nazareth continues to be of vital interest. Yet much of the scholarship around Jesus focuses on his religious significance. Jesus for Everyone examines his most famous teachings from a fresh perspective, exploring how they have continued to shape ethics and civilization in the West for two millennia.

Even for those who reject faith, Jesus’s life and his philosophy are important to study, writes renowned biblical scholar and author Amy-Jill Levine, because of the insights they hold for us today. Poring through scripture, analyzing what historical scholarship has revealed about Jesus’s views on a number of subjects—including women—reveals surprising messages sure to be fascinating to all readers.

Placing Jesus of Nazareth within his historical context, Levine brings him vividly into focus and invites everyone from faithful Christians, agnostics, and the most committed nonbelievers to appreciate his lasting impact on the modern world.

An award-winning author reveals the real-life Da Vinci Code fraud that rocked the establishment. An ancient manuscript is discovered claiming that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. The religious world is thrown into turmoil. It sounds like the plot of a conspiracy thriller, and is one of the biggest scandals of modern scholarship. In 2012, Dr Karen King, a star professor at Harvard Divinity School, announced a blockbuster discovery at a scholarly conference just steps from the Vatican: she had found an ancient fragment of papyrus in which Jesus called Mary Magdalene 'my wife'. The tattered manuscript made international headlines. Biblical scholars were in an uproar, but King had impeccable credentials as a world-renowned authority on female figures in the lost Christian texts from Egypt known as the Gnostic gospels. As Ariel Sabar began to investigate the mysteries surrounding the papyrus, he embarked on an indefatigable globe-spanning hunt that ultimately uncovered the forgery and the identity of the forger, reckoning with fundamental questions about the nature of truth and the line between faith and reason.

A thorough survey of the history of parable interpretation from the period of the Church Fathers to the present, with the most extensive bibliography to date on the parables as a whole and on individual parables.

How would our understanding of Jesus change if we abandoned our preconceptions and focussed on his words alone? How would this wisdom compare with that of ancient Israel and the early first-century church? Such questions pose serious difficulties. Everything in the early Christian gospels is either derived from historical memory, or is borrowed, or invented, argues Charles W. Hedrick. Of the many sayings attributed to Christ, historians can only agree on a few as having been spoken by him - and those few are far from certain. In The Wisdom of Jesus, Hedrick overcomes these challenges, presenting a picture of Jesus as expressed through his own words. The Jesus that emerges is a lower-class man of the first century; a complex figure who cannot be considered religious in a traditional sense. Liberated from theological explanation and interpretation, his discourse is revealed as belonging to the secular world, and his concerns to be those of common life.

Through The Family of Jesus, readers will develop an emotional connection to the family members of Jesus, learning about their lives and falling in love with Scripture along the way. Bible studies and devotionals abound, and in churches everywhere people gather to seek a deeper understanding of God's word and its application to their lives. But too often these studies engage only the analytic approach to Bible learning. In The Family of Jesus, #1 New York Times bestselling novelist Karen Kingsbury will make you laugh, cry, and ultimately care more deeply about the Bible by helping you grasp the truths in Scripture not just with your mind, but with your heart. The characters in these short stories were among those closest to Jesus-Mary, Joseph, Jesus' brother James, John the Baptist, Zechariah, and Elizabeth. Each has a compelling tale to tell. Kingsbury intersperses fictional, emotionally gripping details anchored in Scripture with historical and theological insights and questions that will guide soul-searching and reflection. The Family of Jesus not only provides a deeper understanding of the relatives of our Saviour, but also helps readers acquire tools that will draw them closer to Christ, to the Scriptures, and to each other.

Recent theological scholarship has shown increasing interest in patristic exegesis. The way early Christians read scripture has attracted not only historians, but also systematic and exegetical scholars. However, the Christian reading of scripture before Origen has been neglected or, more often, dominated by Gnostic perspectives. This study uses the writings of Irenaeus to argue that there was a rich Christian engagement with scripture long before Origen and the supposed conflict between Antioch and Alexandria. This is a focused examination of specific exegetical themes that undergird Irenaeus' argument against his opponents. However, whereas many works interpret Irenaeus only as he relates to certain Gnostic teachings, this book recognizes the broader context of the second century and explores the profound questions facing early Christians in an era of martyrdom. It shows that Irenaeus is interested, not simply in expounding the original intent of individual texts, but in demonstrating how individual texts fit into the one catholic narrative of salvation. This in turn, he hopes, will cause his audience to see their place as individuals in the same narrative. Using insightful close reading of Irenaeus, allied with a firm grounding in the context in which he wrote, this book will be vital reading for scholars of the early Church as well as those with interests in patristics and the development of Christian exegesis.

First published in 2007. This seminal work on the influence of Early Christian literature upon European thought and culture, was written by the unrivalled expert in the field, who devoted twelve years to its preparation. When it was published in 1924 it was the first substantial study of the subject, and remains an authority in the field.

Too often the virgin birth of Christ serves merely as an evangelical shibboleth instead of a doctrine that affects our lives. The theological meaning of the virgin birth is rich in and of itself. The author argues that the doctrine has been too long ignored by the church. Collecting from disparate sources into one brief accessible volume, Richard Shenk encourages the church towards boldness, to understand the rich theological treasure that the virgin birth of Christ is for us, and to live out its significance in joy and practice.

First published in 1977, this book is intended as a record of sources in Islamic prophetology which focus on the prophet Isa - Jesus in Christian theology. The Islamic Isa differs markedly from the Christian Jesus, most obviously in that, although considered an important prophet, he is overshadowed by Muhammad. The doctrine of tawhid - the indivisible oneness of God - also necessarily means the rejection of Christ's incarnation or dual nature. The primary of role of Jesus in Islam, as with all Islamic prophets, is to reaffirm the primeval religion of man, best expressed by the Shadada and Islam. This book collects, as comprehensively as possible, bibliographic sources in English and French from the time of the earliest available texts (circa 1650) providing annotated commentary and source information - making it an invaluable research tool for anyone who wishes to study the Islamic Jesus in more detail.

This is the first of a four-volume ground-breaking study of Christological origins. The fruit of twenty years' research, Jesus Monotheism lays out a new paradigm that goes beyond the now widely held view that Paul and others held to an unprecedented 'Christological monotheism'. There was already, in Second Temple Judaism and in the Bible, a kind of 'christological monotheism'. But it is first with Jesus and his followers that a human figure is included in the identity of the one God as a fully divine person. Volume I lays out the arguments of an emerging consensus, championed by Larry Hurtado and Richard Bauckham, that from its Jewish beginnings the Christian community had a high Christology and worshipped Jesus as a divine figure. New data is put forward to support that case. But there are weaknesses in the emerging consensus. For example, it underplays the incarnation and does not convincingly explain what causes the earliest Christology. The recent study of Adam traditions, the findings of Enoch literature specialists, and of those who have explored a Jewish and Christian debt to Greco-Roman Ruler Cult traditions, all point towards a fresh approach to both the origins and shape of the earliest divine Christology.

A Catholic Quest for the Historical Christ brings together a collection of interrelated essays on the historical Jesus and primitive Christology. Sensitive to the diverse, but traditionally Protestant assumptions and perspectives of the ""Quest"" as well as to the widely lamented disconnect between New Testament exegesis and classical dogmatic theology, an alternative approach is proposed in these pages. Ecumenical and conciliar reference points, along with non-confessional historical methods (e.g. archeology) shape the basic project, which nevertheless assumes some distinctive and important Catholic contours. This particular synthesis injects the voice of a missing interlocutor into an established conversation that has not infrequently been both historically confused and dogmatically (and philosophically) numb. The book is divided into three sections: Historical Foundations, Theological Perspectives, and Jesus and the Scriptures. While the individual chapters represent independent probes, the cumulative argument and arc of the study drives in clear and concerted directions. After a first approach to the Gospel data, attentive at once to historiographical and historical questions, a series of interventions reorienting the present scholarly discussion are suggested. These various, foundational essays lead, finally, to a sustained mediation on the mind of Christ, considered as a unique reader of the Scriptures: a meditation having its proper reflex and reflection in the way Christians themselves, as readers of the Gospels, participate in the Lord's own encounter with the living Word.

Teaching the Historical Jesus in his Jewish context to students of varied religious backgrounds presents instructors with not only challenges, but also opportunities to sustain interfaith dialogue and foster mutual understanding and respect. This new collection explores these challenges and opportunities, gathering together experiential lessons drawn from teaching Jesus in a wide variety of settings-from the public, secular two- or four-year college, to the Jesuit university, to the Rabbinic school or seminary, to the orthodox, religious Israeli university. A diverse group of Jewish and Christian scholars reflect on their own classroom experiences and explicates crucial issues for teaching Jesus in a way that encourages students at every level to enter into an encounter with the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament without paternalism, parochialism, or prejudice. This volume is a valuable resource for instructors and graduate students interested in an interfaith approach in the classroom, and provides practical case studies for scholars working on Jewish-Christian relations.