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.

Synopsis: This translation of the Gospel of Thomas represents a departure from the usual literal English of previous publications. It aims at providing a reader-friendly translation of the original Coptic language in contemporary idiomatic English, while remaining true to the complexities of the Coptic. The commentary seeks to clarify each saying as it likely would have been understood in the historical context of the Coptic language during the period of Thomas's popularity in Egypt. The sayings in Thomas in this period are no longer sayings of the Jewish man Jesus of Nazareth, but they have become sayings of a revelation bearer, the living Jesus, who announces a radical faith for a new age of the church. The historical matrix that best serves to inform the text is found in a continuation, albeit in a radical direction, of the traditional faiths represented in the earliest Christian literature. Endorsements: "Hedrick, himself an expert in non-canonical ("apocryphal") Gospels, has here presented for a popular audience a free-flowing non-literal (but accurate) translation of The Gospel of Thomas, with a commentary on each saying, followed by an extensive glossary to explain the more technical terms . . . T]his impressive volume initiates in a readable way the beginner into the scholarly discussion as far as one may wish to go." --James Robinson, Claremont Graduate University "Professor Hedrick's clear modern-English translation and commentary will make this important early source for the teachings of Jesus understandable to anyone who is interested in the foundations of Christianity. His commentaries are particularly valuable because they show the many ways that Jesus' sayings in the Gospel of Thomas relate to Jesus' sayings in the Bible, as well as how those sayings are similar to other passages in ancient religious literature." --Stevan Davies, Misericordia University "A text like the Gospel of Thomas poses special difficulties to a translator: should its apparent obscurity be retained or clarified? Like all best translators, Charles Hedrick has first decided what the text means and then translates accordingly. The result is a fresh, often bold and unexpected, and yet always dependable translation of this important text." --Ismo Dunderberg, University of Helsinki "Unlocking the Secrets of the Gospel according to Thomas offers a reader-friendly introduction to the Gospel of Thomas that is, at the same time, the product of a career of detailed study of this early gospel. Hedrick's introduction is both balanced and readable, his new translation of the Coptic text is fresh and idiomatic, and his brief comments on each saying filled with learning. This is ideal for undergraduate teaching and for the general reader." --John S. Kloppenborg, University of Toronto "While clarifying its numerous relations to antique literature both within and outside the Bible, Hedrick presents Thomas' Gospel as a collection of sayings that speak for themselves by inviting each reader's individual response to the transforming wisdom of Jesus as seen by its users from the second century onwards, rather than as a mere historical artifact or aid for determining the character of Jesus' original message." --John Turner, University of Nebraska Author Biography: Charles W. Hedrick is Distinguished Emeritus Professor at Missouri State University, Springfield, Missouri. He is author of numerous books and articles on subjects relating to New Testament studies. His most recent book is: House of Faith or Enchanted Forest? American Popular Belief in an Age of Reason (Cascade Books, 2009).

Description: Since the Renaissance of the 14th through 17th centuries, and particularly since the Enlightenment of the 18th century, the ancient creeds of faith have been under serious fire, and the struggle has not gone well for popular religion in America. The rapid advances made by the physical sciences in the 19th and 20th centuries and the corresponding reliance on scientific accomplishments in American life have been matched by the growing influence of reason in the way Americans think about religion. Except for pockets of resistance, these developments have negatively influenced the practical role of traditional religion in American life. These essays-published over a twenty-year period as newspaper editorials addressed to the general public-confront popular beliefs and morals with the challenge of human reason. At issue in this meeting of faith and reason is nothing less than the nature of religion in the twenty-first century. Will faith embrace reason to create a House where both dwell in harmony or will faith ignore the claims of reason and continue to live in an Enchanted Forest? Each essay, written in the practical language of the streets, attempts to dialogue with the general reader and gently provoke critical thinking on sensitive issues of belief. Endorsements: ""Charles Hedrick is a scholar who has come clean. From the ""buckle on the Bible Belt"" comes this honest, intelligent, and creative reflection on the struggle between reason (and/or science) and personal faith. Charlie's reminder to take our personal absolute truths (house of faith) a little less seriously and enjoy the diversity of thought and experience (enchanted forest) is practical, powerful, and incredibly timely."" --Glenna S. Jackson, Professor, Department of Religion and Philosophy at Otterbein College. ""House of Faith or Enchanted Forest? is a personal and lively journey along the path of faith and doubt. Charles Hendrick poses deep questions that for centuries have haunted philosophers, historians, and theologians alike. This book awakens and celebrates critical thinking yet remains warmly accessible and resolutely honest. Anyone who wishes to re-think life's great questions in light of the changing face of Christianity will find joy in reading this book. Here is an excellent resource for discussion groups, book clubs, and inquiring individuals."" --David Galston, Director of the Eternal Spring Learning Centre, Hamilton, Ontario ""Charlie Hedrick asks a lot of questions in this provocative collection of short essays. One specific question that, perhaps, sums up the others, 'Can a critical thinker also be a person of traditional religious faith?' Spanning a wide range of topics, Hedrick offers readers challenging questions to ponder, rather than easy answers to swallow. Yet, by pondering such questions, careful readers will find themselves closer to honest answers than they were before they read this helpful book."" --J. Bradley Chance, Professor and Chair, Department of Religion, William Jewell College About the Contributor(s): Charles W. Hedrick is Distinguished Profesor of Religion Emeritus at Missouri State University. He is also the author of Parables as Poetic Fiction, When History and Faith Collide, and Many Things in Parables.

What happens to faith when the creeds and confessions can no longer be squared with historical and empirical evidence? Most critical scholars have wrestled with this question. Some have found ways to reconcile their personal religious belief with the scholarship they practice. Others have chosen to reconstruct their view of religious meaning in light of what they have learned. But most have tended not to share those views in a public forum. And that brings up a second question: At what point does the discrepancy between what I know, or think I know, and what I am willing to say publicly become so acute that my personal integrity is at stake? Being honest about what one thinks has always mattered in critical scholarship. In the pages of ""When Faith Meets Reason"", thirteen scholars take up the challenge to speak candidly about how they negotiate the conflicting claims of faith and reason, in hopes that their journeys will inspire others to engage in their own search for meaning.

Contending that Jesus' narrative parables are more poetic than metaphoric, Charles Hedrick argues that parables should be understood solely on their own terms and not on the terms of the Gospel writers' contexts into which they have been placed or of the agendas of the later church. Hedrick charts new territory as he dares readers to recover the "imaginative fiction" of Jesus' parables. Hedrick's dissatisfaction with figurative and metaphorical approaches or approaches that argue for a particular "meaning" or a "single interpretation" especially those attempting to tie a parable's meaning to the "kingdom of God" diverges sharply from the modern consensus and breaks new ground in parable studies.

"Jesus told parables. Gospel writers give them diverse readings. Modern exegetes give them even more diverse readings. Hedrick chronicles both diversities and then poses a new question. How would those parables, precisely as poetic but realistic stories, have sounded to Jesus' first hearers 'in the context of Israel's fictions about itself'? His book emphasizes original audience reaction, and its signal achievement is to have said something new, interesting, and provocative in the very crowded field of parables research."
" John Dominic Crossan, Professor of Biblical Studies, De Paul University

"Charles Hedrick's "Parables as Poetic Fictions" places the story character of Jesus' parables at the center of attention. His innovative use of Aristotle's poetics pioneers the place of sound in the structuring of the parables and provides a way of understanding how the story is organized. This book must be on the shelf of anyone interested in the parables."
" Bernard Brandon Scott, DarbethDistinguished Professor of New Testament, Phillips Graduate Seminary

The essays in this volume examine the relationship between ancient fiction in the Greco-Roman world and early Jewish and Christian narratives. They consider how those narratives imitated or exploited conventions of fiction to produce forms of literature that expressed new ideas or shaped community identity within the shifting social and political climates of their own societies. Major authors and texts surveyed include Chariton, Shakespeare, Homer, Vergil, Plato, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Daniel, 3 Maccabees, the Testament of Abraham, rabbinic midrash, the Apocryphal Acts, Ezekiel the Tragedian, and the Sophist Aelian. This diverse collection reveals and examines prevalent issues and syntheses in the making: the pervasive use and subversive power of imitation, the distinction between fiction and history, and the use of history in the expression of identity.

What difference does scholarship on the historical Jesus make for the way we think about the meaning of Christian faith in the twenty-first century? In "The Historical Jesus Goes To Church, biblical scholars--Fellows of the Jesus Seminar--speak directly to the ways in which new knowledge of the Jesus of history requires and enables us to think differently about the significance of Jesus and about the reliability and authority of the Bible. They also imagine what these new understandings imply for public worship, preaching, prayer and practice, and life in community. These articles evoke the spirit of Paul, Christianity's first theologian, who like us found himself standing at the intersection of two eras and knew that he had to let go of his past if he hoped to have a future.

On March 20, 1967, the Berlin Egyptian Museum acquired a collection of thirty-three parchment fragments written in Coptic. There they were given the simple designation P22220 and stored unceremoniously in paper folders. Almost thirty years later, two American scholars working independently of each other--Charles Hedrick and Paul Mirecki--began to study these forgotten fragments. What they found were pieces of a previously unknown gospel, a gospel composed perhaps in the second century and written down sometime between the fourth and seventh centuries. This new gospel text contains sayings of a speaker identified as "the savior" and dialogues between the savior and "the apostles." While it shares some sayings with the canonical gospels, there are remarkable additions: To the familiar "You are the salt of the earth" (Matt 5:13), for example, is added the phrase "you are the fire that illuminates the world"--a saying unknown in the canonical gospels. In this first-ever publication of The Gospel of the Savior, the scholars who discovered and reconstructed it provide a translation and critical original language text, along with illuminating introduction, commentary, and Coptic/Greek indices. This volume also includes complete facsimile reproductions of the fragments.

Hedrick explores the tension, or collision, that occurs when one studies the Jesus of faith with the critical eye of historical scholarship. He outlines the nature of historical inquiry, gives a brief history of how scholars have understood Jesus, and identifies the essential issues confronting the reader of the New Testament Gospel accounts of Jesus: discrepancies, contradictions, and differences as well as strong similarities among different writers.

In this splendid introduction to the elusive rhetorical device central to the New Testament picture of Jesus, Charles Hedrick explores the nature of the parable and its history of use. He asks basic questions such as, what is a parable? is Jesus really the author of the parables? and what does a parable mean? and then reviews a range of sources--from Aesop's fables to modern New Testament scholarship--to answer them. He also surveys the various ways the parables have been approached in literary criticism throughout history, giving specific examples of each method and delineating their strengths and weaknesses.

The ruling elite in ancient Rome sought to eradicate even the memory of their deceased opponents through a process now known as damnatio memoriae. These formal and traditional practices included removing the person's name and image from public monuments and inscriptions, making it illegal to speak of him, and forbidding funeral observances and mourning. Paradoxically, however, while these practices dishonored the person's memory, they did not destroy it. Indeed, a later turn of events could restore the offender not only to public favor but also to re-inclusion in the public record. This book examines the process of purge and rehabilitation of memory in the person of Virius Nicomachus Flavianus(?-394). Charles Hedrick describes how Flavian was condemned for participating in the rebellion against the Christian emperor Theodosius the Great-and then restored to the public record a generation later as members of the newly Christianized senatorial class sought to reconcile their pagan past and Christian present. By selectively remembering and forgetting the actions of Flavian, Hedrick asserts, the Roman elite honored their ancestors while participating in profound social, cultural, and religious change.

The essays in this volume examine the relationship between ancient fiction in the Greco-Roman world and early Jewish and Christian narratives. They consider how those narratives imitated or exploited conventions of fiction to produce forms of literature that expressed new ideas or shaped community identity within the shifting social and political climates of their own societies. Major authors and texts surveyed include Chariton, Shakespeare, Homer, Vergil, Plato, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Daniel, 3 Maccabees, the Testament of Abraham, rabbinic midrash, the Apocryphal Acts, Ezekiel the Tragedian, and the Sophist Aelian. This diverse collection reveals and examines prevalent issues and syntheses in the making: the pervasive use and subversive power of imitation, the distinction between fiction and history, and the use of history in the expression of identity. The contributors are Jo-Ann A. Brant, J. R. C. Cousland, Ruben Rene Dupertuis, Noah Hacham, Gerhard van den Heever, Ronald F. Hock, Tawny L. Holm, Sara R. Johnson, Jared W. Ludlow, Dennis R. MacDonald, Chaim Milikowsky, Judith B. Perkins, Richard I. Pervo, Gareth Schmeling, and Chris Shea. "Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)"