New York Times best-selling author Darrell Bock teams with Daniel Wallace to help lay readers separate fact from fiction and help from hype in the recent best-selling Jesus books and television specials.
There is a quest going on. It's the quest to reduce Jesus to a mythic legend or to nothing more than a mere man. Scholars such as Elaine Pagels and James Tabor are using such recent discoveries as the Gospel of Judas and the Gospel of Thomas to argue that the Christ of Christianity is a contrived figure and that a different Christ-one human and not divine-is the "true" Christ.
In his trademark easy-to-understand style Darrell Bock takes on these attempts to redefine Jesus in a convincing, winsome way that will help readers understand that the orthodox understanding of Christ and his divinity is as trustworthy and sure as it ever was. Joining Bock for the first time is fellow scholar Daniel Wallace.
Exposing Jesusanity Dethroning Jesus is another excellent book among several recently released attacking those who seek to re-create the historical Jesus. Bock and Wallace do a good job of exposing the poor scholarship prevalent in many popular publications by these charlatans, who for fame, money, post-modernism, or whatever motive, want to revise history to remove the Divine Jesus of Christianity and replace him with an ordinary man, or even treat Him as myth. Bock and Wallace use interesting terms for the two competing viewpoint of the historical Jesus; Christianity vs. Jesusanity. Christianity is the claim that Jesus is the anointed One sent from heaven, who serves as a bridge between God and humanity. Jesusiaity presents Jesus as another prophet or teacher of religious wisdom, one of many, with no enthronement at God's side.
Bock and Wallace expose the errors of the misguided skeptical scholars like Bart Ehrman, J.D. Crossan, Funk, Marcus Borg, James Tabor, Simcha Jacobvici and others with their minimalist, revisionist and faddish Jesusanity. They group the claims of the Jesusanity proponents into those that claim the original New Testament text is corrupted (Bart Ehrman), that the Gnostic Gospels (Judas) show an alternative Christianity (Elaine Pagels), that the Gospel of Thomas alters our understanding of Jesus, Jesus was fundamentally political and social (Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan), that Paul altered the Jesus movement and created the exalted Jesus (Tabor) and that Jesus' tomb has been found and there was no resurrection and ascension.
The best parts, in my opinion, are found in the final two chapters. First where they expose historical errors in J. Tabor's Jesus Dynasty. Then the last chapter which challenges the absurd, illogical assertions of those (Jacobvici, Cameron, Tabor) who claim to have found the tomb of Jesus, exposing their faulty assumptions, faulty statistics, and faulty interpretation of evidence.
The true historical Jesus of Christianity is exciting and inspiring, and far more compelling than the minimalist revisionist Jesusanity version. This book does a good job of challenging the skeptics, although it is a little tedious in places (perhaps because I have heard the same arguments in similar books). Other good ones I recommend are Reinventing Jesus by Komoszewski, Sawyer and Wallace and Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels by Craig Evans.
An Informed Treatment I think that the first chapter is worth the price of the book. The chapter speaks concerning the claims that the New Testament we have is not the one that the first century Christians had - namely Erhman's claims. Bock/Wallace makes this claim look outrageous and down right ridiculous (which, by the evidence, it is).
Notably I felt that the last chapter on the Tomb of Jesus was good too. I feel that a great supplement to this chapter was the Discovery Channel special on this topic, especially the post-documentary segment. Ted Koppel does the job for the experts in tearing apart terrible journalism and documentary making. Bock follows this up (while he too was on that segment) with a good chapter on the flaws and assumption upon assumption the researchers made.
Since I teach I really appreciated the final note at the end of the book. Bock/Wallace commented on the loss of integrity that Ehrman has displayed in his conspiracy theory spreading. They note that even though he knows people are gravely misunderstanding him he not only doesn't do anything about it, as a good teacher/researcher would, but increases the paranoia by throwing out crazier unfounded claims on such places as NPR and Discovery Channel. Good note by a couple of responsible teachers/researchers.
Another good book on Gnosticism and The Gospel of Judas (which Bock, too, treats) is Judas and the Gospel of Jesus by N. T. Wright.
Brilliant. Well written. Tackles the current questions about the bible Bock and Wallace, well known scholars, take on the current crop of attacks on Jesus' divinity, and masterfully answer the accusations.
Library shelves groan from the weight of all the books on the Gnostics. So, are the accusers right? Was Christianity merely one of many alternative views of Jesus--and, in the eyes of Pagels and DeConick, a much, much better take on him?
Typical of these scholars who think the Gnostics were an early alternative to Christianity was the recent reaction when the Gnostic Gospel of Judas was found. Bock and Wallace point out that "Judas possesses a deviant, alternative expression of creation that is not even close to the view of the Jewish Scriptures that the earliest Christians accepted" (p 101). Like all the other Gnostic gospels, and with its wildly divergent beliefs about God and creation, it's clear that Judas "is late, alternative, and aberrant" (p 103).
The Gospel of Thomas is another example of a Gnostic work that has drawn much scholarly attention. The Jesus Seminar members have argued that Thomas is more reliable than Mark and Matthew. However, as Perrin and others have shown, it is not an early work, certainly not a 1st century work.
Two members of the Jesus Seminar, Crossan and Borg, have suggested that Jesus was a political figure, more interested in overthrowing the tyrants than in religion. Bock and Wallace point out that Jesus always speaks about God and religion. He all but ignores the political system. Bock and Wallace also point out that Crossan/Borg make at least one claim that is flat-out wrong: when they say that it was Anselm in 1097 who first popularized the idea that Jesus died for our sins. How could they have ignored all the evidence from Paul and the early church fathers?
Bock and Wallace also tackle Tabor's claims that Paul took over Christianity and twisted it to something new and strange. Tabor believes that there was a genuine split between Peter and Paul, and hence, in early Christian beliefs. But then, as Bock and Wallace point out, why will Tabor believe Paul's comments about the discussion, but refuse to believe Paul about the resolution?
Anyone interested in biblical scholarship, or in recent claims about Jesus, needs this book.
Worth contemplating This is the perfect book for Biblical literalists. Not only does it identify the revisionist culprits--Borg, Crossan, Ehrman, Funk, Pagels, King and others--it also cherry picks their writings and, in my opinion, skews, albeit subtly, what they have said.
But that's my opinion. You decide. Read widely and ask these questions:
When did the followers of Jesus write the sacred texts? During his life or after?
How celebrated was Jesus when he was alive? If he was a big deal, why are there scant references to him outside Christendom?
Who decided on the Biblical canon? What role did rulers--Constantine, King James, others--play in approving acceptable tests?
Form your own questions. Read every serious scholar and continue reforming your thinking as new information and interpretations appear.
For me, John Dominic Crossan's God and Empire is the best example of current thinking on the issue of Jesus and living.
An in-depth view into Jesus Reviewed by Robin Witte for RebeccasReads (3/08)
"Dethroning Jesus" is an in-depth evaluation of Jesus as viewed in Christianity and Jesusanity. Bock and Wallace describe each of these viewpoints in a lengthy introduction that lays the groundwork for the reader to follow the debates set forth later in the book. Christianity is described as the belief in Jesus as the "anointed one" and messiah found in the Bible, a fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. Jesusanity, however, is described as the belief that Jesus, while being a teacher and spiritual leader, was solely human and not divine. The background information and scholarship of Jesusanity is detailed and gives the reader a decent framework to evaluate and understand each claim. Six claims are discussed in this book and range from the validity of the gospels to the new revelations in recently found gospels to the claim that Jesus was not physically resurrected. Each claim is clearly laid forth with the evidence and writings written about each claim described with the writers' arguments against the claims. Each claim is concluded with Bock and Wallace's educated opinion.
The reader can form their own opinions for themselves based on the evidence suggested. Bock and Wallace are proponents of the Christian view of Jesus and this is a good book to read if you want to learn more about Christianity as opposed to a more liberal view of the Bible. "Dethroning Jesus" is not an easy read and does require the reader to have a thorough knowledge of the Bible and early Christianity. Bock and Wallace refer to many works of theology and Christian criticism that are not completely relayed to the reader of this book. If you want to know what they are referring to, you need to purchase a few more books.
"Dethroning Christ" is clearly written by men in academia and might be a bit complex for many people to understand. Without having read "The Gospel of Thomas," I have to admit that I was a bit confused as I read their debate into whether it was an authentic and valuable description of Jesus. That being said, this book is well-researched and clearly shows many points of views into Jesus. The reader will come away from this book knowing a lot more about how varying groups view this man who is always at the center of so much controversy.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tony's Online Tips
Trevor
