Excursus: Resources for this Study
The first two chapters of Edwards’ book (which dealt with the Quest for the Historical Jesus and The Jesus Seminar) looked at the skepticism of some New Testament scholars since the enlightenment.
From what I have read, those scholars’ answers to the question “Is Jesus the only savior?” is essentially to say “No, and in fact Jesus is not even a savior. No savior exists, only sages, teachers, models for living, etc. We can’t know enough about the real Jesus to know what he was, other than a teacher and maybe a healer. All we can know is what the early church wrote about Jesus.”
In effect, then, if the New Testament is as unreliable as claimed, we can’t know very much about the “real” Jesus at all. So how do we answer the skeptical scholars’ claims? We need to examine the evidence for the reliability of the New Testament as a credible source of information about Jesus.
Once we do that, then we will examine two more questions as we continue to lay the foundation for answering the book’s major question: (1) what specific claims does the New Testament make about Jesus?; and (2) what, if anything can be know about Jesus’ own self-understanding?
This is probably a good time for a brief excursus – to list some of the books and online sites I’ve been reading along with the major book for the summer, James R. Edwards’ “Is Jesus The Only Savior?”. These books give introductions to and different perspectives the major subjects in Edwards’ book: the reliability of the New Testament, the search for the “real” Jesus, and the message of the gospel in a pluralistic world.
My next post will treat the question of the reliability of the New Testament. For now, check out some of these resources. I don’t agree with all of them, but I feel a need to study all of them in order to come to informed conclusions.
Borg, Marcus J (site about his works) www.united.edu/portait/index/shtml
Borg, Marcus J. Meeting Jesus Again for The First Time
Borg, Marcus J. www.explorefaith.org/bio.borg.html
Borg, Marcus J. & Wright, N. T. The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions
Bruce, F. F. The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?
Edwards, James R. Is Jesus The Only Savior?
Groothuis, Douglas Searching for the Real Jesus In An Age of Controversy
Gundry, Okholm, Phillips, editors Four Views of Salvation In A Pluralistic World
Jesus Seminar www.westarinstitute.org/jesus_seminar/jesus_seminar.html
Lindsley, Art C.S. Lewis's Case For Christ
McGrath, Alister E. Christian Theology, An Introduction
Roberts, Mark D http://www.markdroberts.com/htmfiles/resources/gospelsreliable.htm
Roberts, Mark D http://www.markdroberts.com/htmfiles/resources/knowaboutjesus.htm
Roberts, Mark http://www.markdroberts.com/htmfiles/resources/unmaskingthejesus.htm
Smith, Huston The World's Religions
Witherington, III, Ben The Jesus Quest: The Third Search for the Jew of Nazareth
Wright, N. T. The Contemporary Quest For Jesus
Wright, N. T. http://www.ntwrightpage.com/
Wright, N. T. Simply Christian
Other than the Edwards book that we’re following as our text, the resources I would recommend for those just starting the study are:
- The book by both Borg and Wright which clearly delineates the different approaches to the historical study of Jesus (The Meaning of Jesus:Two Visions).
- The web sites with materials by and about Marcus Borg (for the view held by scholars connected with The Jesus Seminar)
- The web site for N. T. Wright (for a view that represents scholars with a more traditional view of Jesus)
- The blog links for Mark D. Roberts (for a view of a scholarly pastor – PhD from Harvard, and Senior Pastor of Irvine Presbyterian Church in Irvine, California). He has written extensively on a multitude of subjects and posted them online, so they are accessible without having to go to a library or buy a bunch of books. He also teaches some classes at Fuller Theological Seminary (conservative) and San Francisco Theological Seminary (liberal), so he has to wrestle with subjects that are germane to Christians in the world today
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