Religious relics, defined as "either portions of or objects connected with the body of a saint or other holy person," are among the most revered items in the world. Christian relics such as the Holy Grail, the True Cross, and the Lance of Longinus are also the source of limitless controversy. Such items have incited people to bloodshed and, some say, have been a source of miracles. Relics inspire fear and hope among the faithful and yet are a perennial target for skeptics, both secular and Christian. To research the authenticity of numerous Christian relics, Joe Nickell takes a scientific approach to a field of study all too often tainted by premature conclusions. In this volume, Nickell investigates such renowned relics as the Shroud of Turin, the multiple heads of John the Baptist, and the supposedly incorruptible corpses of saints, first examining the available evidence and documented history of each item. From accounts of true believers to the testimony of the relics' alleged fabricators, Nickell then presents all sides of each story, allowing the evidence to speak for itself. For each relic, Nickell evaluates both the corroborating and contradictory bodies of evidence and explores whether the relic and attributed miracles can be reconstructed. In addition to his own experiments, Nickell presents findings from the world's top scientists and historians regarding these controversial objects of reverence and ire, explaining the circumstances under which each case was examined. Radiocarbon dating and tests to determine the validity of substances such as blood or patina indicate a variety of possible origins. Nickell even reveals some of the techniques used to create archaeological forgeries and explains how investigators have exposed them. Each relic is a mystery to be solved; guided by the maxim, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof," Nickell seeks only the truth.

The classic text on examining the evidence for the Resurrection. Convinced that the story wasn't true, Frank Morison started to write about Jesus' last days. However, as he studied this crucial period something happened... First published in 1930, this is an in-depth exploration of what happened between the death of Jesus and the resurrection as recorded in the Bible. Using many information sources, this is crammed with vital detail that every Christian should know and is also a powerful tool for persuasion of those questioning Christianity. Writing this book changed Morison's life. Will you let it change yours?

The first textbook survey of the life of Christ by an evangelical New Testament scholar for over twenty-five years. Robert H. Stein draws together the results of a career of research and writing on Jesus and the gospels. Clearly written, ably argued and geared to the needs of students, Jesus the Messiah will give enquiring minds a sure grounding in the life and ministry of Jesus.

The conviction that Jesus is the restorative Christ demands a commitment to the justice he articulated. The justice of the restorative Christ is justice with reconciliation, justice with repentance, justice with repair, and justice without retaliation. The Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts portray the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ through the radical concept of "enemy-love." In conversation with Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Jesus-for-others), John Howard Yoder (a nonviolent Jesus), Miroslav Volf (an embracing Jesus), and Chris Marshall (a compassionate Jesus), Broughton demonstrates what the restorative Christ means for us today. Following the restorative Christ faithfully involves imaginative disciplines (seeing, remembering, and desiring), conversational disciplines (naming, questioning, and forgiving), and embodied disciplines (absorbing, repairing, and embracing).

Jesus' words from the cross are not Jesus' last words on earth. Jesus appeared to his fearful and questioning disciples, encouraged them, and gave them his final instructions after his resurrection from the dead. In various settings and at different times, Jesus interacted with many of his followers to show them he was alive. His post resurrection dialogues with these women and men truly are Jesus' last words! You may have questions or doubts about faith. You may have discussed spiritual topics or talked with others about Jesus. You may sometimes feel religiously locked into past concepts or socially locked out from people-even embarrassed or fearful about how others perceive you and your spiritual beliefs or questions. You may wonder, Can Jesus really impact my life?

The two contradicting genealogies of Jesus in the Gospels have long puzzled biblical scholars. Rudolf Steiner's spiritual research led him to the controversial theological conclusion that historically there existed two Jesus boys, born of two holy families. These two boys, he said, were necessary as part of the spiritual preparation of forming a suitable human body for the incarnation of Christ into the earthly realm. Both apocryphal texts and the writings of the Essenes - as discovered at Qumran by the Dead Sea - now appear to support this conception, with references to Messianic figures from both royal and priestly lines. Various authors have developed Rudolf Steiner's observations - first presented in the early twentieth century - although much of this literature has lacked the rigour of accurate and broad scholarship. The Two Jesus Boys is not simply a derivative rehash of these previous publications. Rather, it offers a fresh investigation of primary sources, coupled with an objective determination to allow the facts to speak for themselves. Christoph Rau thus comes to the unavoidable conclusion that Steiner's presentation of the chronology of the two births needs revision; furthermore, the most recent discoveries and interpretations of Essene scrolls reveal that the Jewish sect expected not one but three Messiahs. Rau quotes from and analyses numerous documents from the landscape of early Christianity and Judaism. His findings provide a secure foundation for the historical existence of two Jesus boys in the prelude to Christ's incarnation on earth, as well as a revelation of the Essenes' long expectation of three Messiahs.

In this fully revised and updated second edition of his accessible account of systematic Christology, Gerald O'Collins continues to challenge the contemporary publishing trend for sensationalist books on Jesus that are supported neither by the New Testament witness nor by mainline Christian beliefs.
This book critically examines the best biblical and historical scholarship before tackling head-on some of the key questions of systematic Christology: does orthodox faith present Jesus the man as deficient and depersonalized? Is his sinlessness compatible with the exercise of a free human will? Does up-to-date exegesis challenge his virginal conception and personal resurrection? Can one reconcile Jesus' role as universal Saviour with the truth and values to be found in other religions? What should the feminist movement highlight in presenting Jesus? This integral Christology is built around the resurrection of the crucified Jesus, highlights love as the key to redemption, and proposes a synthesis of the divine presence through Jesus. Clear, balanced, and accessible, this book should be valued by any student reading systematic theology, anyone training for the ministry in all denominations, as well as interested general readers.

In a groundbreaking exploration of modern Jewish literature, Neta Stahl examines the attitudes adopted by modern Jewish writers toward the figure of Jesus, the ultimate ''Other'' in medieval Jewish literature. Stahl argues that twentieth-century Jewish writers relocated Jesus from his traditional status as the Christian Other to a position as a fellow Jew, a ''brother,'' and even as a means of reconstructing themselves. Other and Brother analyzes the work of a wide array of modern Jewish writers, beginning in the early twentieth century and ending with contemporary Israeli literature. Stahl takes the reader through dramatic changes in Jewish life beginning with the Haskalah (or Jewish Enlightenment) and Emancipation, and subsequently Zionism and the Holocaust. The Holocaust and the formation of the state of Israel caused a major transformation in the Jewish attitude toward Jesus. The emergence of quasi-messianic Zionist ideas of returning to the land of Israel, where the actual Jesus was born, helped other features of the image of Jesus to become a source of attraction and identification for Hebrew poets and Hebrew and Yiddish prose writers in the first half of the twentieth century. Stahl's nuanced and insightful historiography of modern Hebrew and Jewish literature will be a valuable resource to anyone interested in the role of Jesus in Jewish culture.

Through groundbreaking analysis of early Christian texts, Candida Moss reveals that the words, actions, and deaths of martyrs are modeled on those of Christ. Moss traces this imitation through the literature of the Jesus movement and early church, then examines interpretations of the martyr's death and afterlife. Arguing against the dominant theory that the martyr's death was seen as a sacrifice, Moss finds that beyond death martyrs continue to be assimilated to Christ as intercessors, judges, enthroned monarchs, and banqueters. Though characterization of the martyr as "another Christ" ultimately conflicted with theological commitments to Christ's uniqueness, Moss shows that, for a brief period, the martyr's imitation was viewed as sharing in the status of the exalted Christ.

Since the advent of the cinema, Jesus has frequently appeared in our movie houses and on our television screens. Indeed, it may well be that more people worldwide know about Jesus and his life story from the movies than from any other medium. Indeed, Jesus' story has been adapted dozens of times throughout the history of commercial cinema, from the 1912 silent From the Manger to the Cross to Mel Gibson's 2004 The Passion of the Christ. No doubt there are more to come.
Drawing on a broad range of movies, biblical scholar Adele Reinhartz traces the way in which Jesus of Nazareth has become Jesus of Hollywood. She argues that Jesus films both reflect and influence cultural perceptions of Jesus and the other figures in his story. She focuses on the cinematic interpretation of Jesus' relationships with the key people in his life: his family, his friends, and his foes. She examines how these films address theological issues, such as Jesus' identity as both human and divine, political issues, such as the role of the individual in society and the possibility of freedom under political oppression, social issues, such as gender roles and hierarchies, and personal issues, such as the nature of friendship and human sexuality.
Reinhartz's study of Jesus' celluloid incarnations shows how Jesus movies reshape the past in the image of the present. Despite society's profound interest in Jesus as a religious and historical figure, Jesus movies are fascinating not as history but as mirrors of the concerns, anxieties, and values of our own era. As the story of Jesus continues to capture the imagination of filmmakers and moviegoers, he remains as significant a cultural figure today as he was 2000 years ago.

Was Jesus a Nazi? During the Third Reich, German Protestant theologians, motivated by racism and tapping into traditional Christian anti-Semitism, redefined Jesus as an Aryan and Christianity as a religion at war with Judaism. In 1939, these theologians established the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life. In "The Aryan Jesus," Susannah Heschel shows that during the Third Reich, the Institute became the most important propaganda organ of German Protestantism, exerting a widespread influence and producing a nazified Christianity that placed anti-Semitism at its theological center.

Based on years of archival research, "The Aryan Jesus" examines the membership and activities of this controversial theological organization. With headquarters in Eisenach, the Institute sponsored propaganda conferences throughout the Nazi Reich and published books defaming Judaism, including a dejudaized version of the New Testament and a catechism proclaiming Jesus as the savior of the Aryans. Institute members--professors of theology, bishops, and pastors--viewed their efforts as a vital support for Hitler's war against the Jews. Heschel looks in particular at Walter Grundmann, the Institute's director and a professor of the New Testament at the University of Jena. Grundmann and his colleagues formed a community of like-minded Nazi Christians who remained active and continued to support each other in Germany's postwar years.

"The Aryan Jesus" raises vital questions about Christianity's recent past and the ambivalent place of Judaism in Christian thought.

WOMEN'S STUDIES / CREATION SPIRITUALITY "Margaret Starbird's work is of particular interest to me because it fuses the diverse fields of symbolism, mythology, art, heraldry, psychology, and gospel history. Her research opens doors for each of us to further explore the rich iconography of our own spiritual history." DAN BROWN, author of The Da Vinci Code "Margaret Starbird is a seeker after truth. She seeks to recover the long-suppressed, and not infrequently emotionally opposed, feminine side of the Christian story. Hers is an exciting narrative probing regions of thought long neglected. Magdalen, the Great Mary, emerges with new power."JOHN SHELBY SPONG, Episcopal bishop and author of Born of a Woman "This fascinating and courageous narrative takes a fresh look at the true meaning of the Holy Grail and the defeminization of the early church and comes up with some shocking revelations that may change the way one perceives Christianity forever." Nexus Magazine Margaret Starbird's theological beliefs were profoundly shaken when she read Holy Blood, Holy Grail, a book that dared to suggest that Jesus Christ was married to Mary Magdalen and that their descendants carried on his holy bloodline in Western Europe. Shocked by such heresy, this Roman Catholic scholar set out to refute it, but instead found new and compelling evidence for the existence of the bride of Jesus--the same enigmatic woman who anointed him with precious unguent from her "alabaster jar." In this provocative book, Starbird draws her conclusions from an extensive study of history, heraldry, symbolism, medieval art, mythology, psychology, and the Bible itself. The Woman with the Alabaster Jar is a quest for the forgottenfeminine--in the hope that its return will help restore a healthy balance to planet Earth. MARGARET STARBIRD is the author of The Goddess in the Gospels, Magdalene's Lost Legacy, and Mary Magdalene: Bride in Exile. She lives near Seattle, Washington.

In Saint Saul, Donald Harman Akenson offers a lively and provocative account of what we can learn about Jesus by reading the letters of Paul. As the only direct evidence of Jesus we have that were composed before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE forever altered the outlook of the Christian and Jewish faiths, Akenson claims that these letters are the most reliable source of information. He dismisses the traditional method of searching for facts about Jesus by looking for parallels among the four gospels because they were handed down to us as a unit by a later generation. Akenson painstakingly recreates the world of Christ, a time rich with ideas, prophets, factions, priests, savants, and god-drunk fanatics. As an eminent historian, Akenson approaches his subject with a fresh eye and a scholarly rigor that is all too rare in this hotly disputed field.

Jesus' Literacy: Education and the Teacher from Galilee provides the first book-length treatment of the literate status of the Historical Jesus Despite many scholars' assumptions that Jesus was an illiterate peasant or, conversely, even a Pharisee none have critically engaged the evidence to ask 'Could Jesus read or write?' Some studies have attempted to provide a direct answer to the question using the limited primary evidence that exists. However, these previous attempts have not been sufficiently sensitive to the literary environment of Second Temple Judaism, an area that has seen significant scholarly progression in the last ten to fifteen years. They have provided unnuanced classifications of Jesus as either 'literate' or 'illiterate' rather than observing that literacy at this time did not fall into such monolithic categories. An additional contribution of this work will is in the area of criteria of authenticity in Historical Jesus studies. Emphasizing plausibility and the later effects of the Historical Jesus Chris L. Keith argues that the most plausible explanation for why the early Church remembered Jesus simultaneously as a literate Jewish teacher and an illiterate Jewish teacher was that he was able to convince his contemporaries of both realities. Formerly the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement, a book series that explores the many aspects of New Testament study including historical perspectives, social-scientific and literary theory, and theological, cultural and contextual approaches. The Early Christianity in Context series, a part of JSNTS, examines the birth and development of early Christianity up to the end of the third century CE. The series places Christianity in its social, cultural, political and economic context. European Seminar on Christian Origins and Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus Supplement are also part of JSNTS.

Poetry, Rosenthal argues, focuses the imagination of a culture as no other written form can. In each chapter of her book, she considers the world's poets as Shelley's 'unacknowledged legislators' - creators who dreamed or destroyed visions of Jesus which shaped the spiritual climate of their times and nations. The book, though wide-ranging in its coverage and impeccably researched, is written extremely accessibly, as though for the general reader, hence it should appeal to the literature and poetry market more broadly as well as scholars of both poetry and Christianity.

""Reading the Gospels without knowing the personality of Jesus is like watching television with the sound turned off. The result is a dry, two dimensional person doing strange, undecipherable things. But when we discover his true character-this man who made the wind, music and flying squirrels-suddenly all of the remarkable qualities of Jesus burst forth with color and brilliance like fireworks.
Breaking Jesus out of the typical stereotypes, BEAUTIFUL OUTLAW welcomes readers into the rich emotional life of Christ showing how they can experience the actual personality of Jesus in their daily lives in ways that will deepen their faith.

Embracing the Human Jesus is a sincere effort to think anew about Christianity and Christian practice on the foundation of a purely human Jesus. Against the inevitable criticism that such a Jesus undermines the historic faith of the church, David Galston finds a human Jesus who inspires a new era of honesty in the practice of Christianity. The book expresses the awareness held by many scholars that the historical Jesus was an end-time prophet not well suited to the contemporary world. Galston counters that, by pointing out that whether taking the apocalyptic or non-apocalyptic view, virtually all scholars see Jesus as a participant in the Jewish wisdom tradition. On this often marginalised foundation, Galston proposes that the trajectory of the ancient wisdom of Jesus can be grasped in the contemporary world and can find life in the thinking and practices of a new church. The book combines both academic theory and basic Christian experience to offer a simple model that will help communities take the historical Jesus to church.

God Visible: Patristic Christology Reconsidered considers the early development and reception of what is today the most widely professed Christian conception of Christ. The development of this doctrine admits of wide variations in expression and understanding, varying emphases in interpretation that are as striking in authors of the first millennium as they are among modern writers. The seven early ecumenical councils and their dogmatic formulations are crucial way-stations in defining the shape of this study. Brian E. Daley argues that the scope of previous enquiries, which focused on the declaration of the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451 that Christ was one Person in two natures, the Divine of the same substance as the Father, and the human of the same substance as us, now seems excessively narrow and distorts our understanding. Daley sets aside the Chalcedonian formula and instead considers what some major Church Fathers-from Irenaeus to John Damascene-say about the person of Christ.

Jesus the Jew is the primary signifier of Christianity's indebtedness to Judaism. This connection is both historical and continuous. In this book, Barbara Meyer shows how Christian memory, as largely intertwined with Jewish memory, provides a framework to examine the theological dimensions of historical Jesus research. She explores the topics that are central to the Jewishness of Jesus, such as the Christian relationship to law, and otherness as a Christological category. Through the lenses of the otherness of the Jewish Jesus for contemporary Christians, she also discusses circumcision, natality, vulnerability, and suffering in dialogue with thinkers seldom drawn into Jewish-Christian discourse, notably Hannah Arendt, Julia Kristeva, Martha Nussbaum and Adi Ophir. Meyer demonstrates how the memory of Jesus' Jewishness is a key to reconfiguring contemporary challenges to Christian thought, such as particularity and otherness, law and ethics after the Shoah, human responsibility, and divine vulnerability.

Devotion to the crucified Christ is one of the most familiar, yet most disconcerting artifacts of medieval European civilization. How and why did the images of the dying God-man and his grieving mother achieve such prominence, inspiring unparalleled religious creativity as well such imitative extremes as celibacy and self-flagellation? To answer this question, Rachel Fulton ranges over developments in liturgical performance, private prayer, doctrine, and art. She considers the fear occasioned by the disappointed hopes of medieval Christians convinced that the apocalypse would come soon, the revulsion of medieval Jews at being baptized in the name of God born from a woman, the reform of the Church in light of a new European money economy, the eroticism of the Marian exegesis of the Song of Songs, and much more. Devotion to the crucified Christ is one of the most familiar yet disconcerting artifacts of medieval European civilization. How and why did the images of the dying God-man and his grieving mother achieve such prominence, inspiring unparalleled religious creativity and emotional artistry even as they fostered such imitative extremes as celibacy, crusade, and self-flagellation? Magisterial in style and comprehensive in scope, From Judgment to Passion is the first systematic attempt to explain the origins and initial development of European devotion to Christ in his suffering humanity and Mary in her compassionate grief. Rachel Fulton examines liturgical performance, doctrine, private prayer, scriptural exegesis, and art in order to illuminate and explain the powerful desire shared by medieval women and men to identify with the crucified Christ and his mother. The book begins with the Carolingian campaign to convert the newly conquered pagan Saxons, in particular with the effort to explain for these new converts the mystery of the Eucharist, the miraculous presence of Christ's body at the Mass. Moving on to the early eleventh century, when Christ's failure to return on the millennium of his Passion (A.D. 1033) necessitated for believers a radical revision of Christian history, Fulton examines the novel liturgies and devotions that arose amid this apocalyptic disappointment. The book turns finally to the twelfth century when, in the wake of the capture of Jerusalem in the First Crusade, there occurred the full flowering of a new, more emotional sensibility of faith, epitomized by the eroticism of the Marian exegesis of the Song of Songs and by the artistic and architectural innovations we have come to think of as quintessentially high medieval. In addition to its concern with explaining devotional change, From Judgment to Passion presses a second, crucial question: How is it possible for modern historians to understand not only the social and cultural functions but also the experience of faith-the impulsive engagement with the emotions, sometimes ineffable, of prayer and devotion? The answer, magnificently exemplified throughout this book's narrative, lies in imaginative empathy, the same incorporation of self into story that lay at the heart of the medieval effort to identify with Christ and Mary in their love and pain.

Fulton Oursler's outstanding classic "The Greatest Story Ever Told" narrates the ever-new, everlasting story of the life of Jesus Christ. Written with powerful simplicity and set against a rich and accurate historical background, this account of the greatest life ever lived describes the moving story of Christ's nativity, the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt, Christ's youth, His public ministry, passion, death, and resurrection.
While there have been many lives of Christ published, few have received so wide a popular acclamation as Fulton Oursler's classic tale. Since it was first published in 1949, when it was instantly acclaimed by both the secular and lay press and endorsed by clergy of all faiths, "The Greatest Story Ever Told" has gone into scores of printings, has been read by millions, and is one of the most successful bestsellers of all time. The life of Christ is certainly the greatest story ever told, and Fulton Oursler has told it superbly well.