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- Recovering Jesus in the Second & Third Quests
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 - As we began to see in our last class and as Bond summarizes in our reading today, the insights of Wrede and Schweitzer
doomed the 19th-century liberal quest for the historical Jesus. Wrede disproved
Holtzmann's view that Mark's gospel was free of early church theology because
it was written first; Wrede's analysis of the messianic secret showed that even
this "raw" gospel was filled with early Christian dogma. And as we will see more
fully today, Schweitzer showed that the many portraits of the historical Jesus
drawn by scholars in the 19th century were more the projections of each scholar's
ideals than the product of objective reconstruction.
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- Many people
threw up their hands at the prospect of ever finding the historical Jesus,
and set out on a different intellectual path. A leading example of this response,
and the first one we will read from for today, is Rudolf Bultmann (1884–1976),
pictured to the right. He argued that Christian faith wasn't rooted in the "Jesus
of history" anyway, but rather in the "Christ of faith," so that's
where one's intellectual energies should be spent. Since Bultmann was skeptical
about the value of an historical Jesus, he is considered part of the collapse
of the liberal quest; but because of his careful form-critical work excavating
the earliest component forms of the gospel stories, he sets the stage for the
Second or New Quest that would be undertaken by his students.
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- Some of Bultmann's students were troubled by hhis conclusion that the historical, Jewish Jesus didn't matter. In part their discomfort was due to the treatment of the Jews by Nazi Germany; to dismiss Jesus' Judaism had been part of Nazi theologians' agenda. There was a theological as well as a political concern, to: Bultmann seemed
to cut a divinized Christ off from the human Jesus as if the two were separable.
One of Bultmann's students was Ernst Käsemann (1906–1998), from whose work we
will also read. As you read, see if you can tell what points he grants his teacher,
but also list the reasons he thinks a "new quest" to recover the historical, Jewish Jesus
(the second quest) is warranted. Other scholars associated with the new quest
were Gunther Bornkamm and Norman Perrin.
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How Jewish is your Jesus?
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Mediterranean Man
First-century fresco |
The Head of Christ
Warner Sallman, 1940 |
First-Century Semitic Man
Donato Giancola |
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- There is also a third quest
now underway, characterized by the diversity of its practitioners, their focus on the Jewishness of Jesus, and their concern to reconstruct the most plausible context for understanding Jesus (including archaeological findings). Bond introduces you to ten of the leading voices, and as you look at their pictures below you might wonder just how this particular group is so diverse! Regardless, as you review her chapter, be able to:
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- Identify the differences between the three quests, and
- Choose one third "quester" whose account strikes you as the most plausible, and be able to identify why.
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Third Questers mentioned by Bond
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| Geza Vermes |
E. P. Sanders |
Richard Horsley |
Robert Funk
[Jesus Seminar] |
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| J. D. Crossan |
David Flusser |
John P. Meier |
N. T. Wright |
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J. D. G. Dunn |
Dale Allison |
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- Assigned Readings
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| Primary: |
Excerpts from Bultmann and Käsemann (from Dawes, The Historical Jesus Quest, pp. 244-6, 260-64, 279-83 - Camino) |
| Secondary: |
Bond, The Historical Jesus 7-36; ; online class prep |
| Lecture Slides: |
Class 2b (pdf) |
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- Further Reading
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- Bultmann,
Rudolf. "Liberal Theology and the Latest Theological Movement." In
Faith and Understanding (ed. Robert W. Funk; trans. Louise Pettibone Smith;
The Library of Philosophy and Theology; London: SCM, 1969) 28-52.
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- Second
Quest
- Bornkamm, Günther. Jesus of Nazareth, trans. Irene and
Fraser McLuskey with James M. Robinson. New York: Harper, 1960.
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- Käsemann, Ernst. Essays on New Testament Themes.
Philadelphia: Fortress, 1982.
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- Perrin, Norman. Rediscovering the Teaching of Jesus.
New York: Harper & Row, 1967.
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- --------. Jesus and the Language of the Kingdom: Symbol and Metaphor
in New Testament Interpretation. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980;
original, 1976.
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- Third Quest
- Borg, Marcus J. Meeting Jesus again for the First Time: The Historical
Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco,
1995.
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- Crossan, John Dominic. The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean
Jewish Peasant. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991.
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- Fredriksen, Paula. Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish
Life and the Emergence of Christianity. New York: Knopf, 1999.
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- Meier, John P. A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus,
4 vols. New York: Doubleday, 1991-2001.
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- Sanders, E. P. The Historical Figure of Jesus. London:
Allen Lane/Penguin, 1993.
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- Links
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- Sources
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- Rudolf Bultmann: Photographic reproduction, reproduced on Jim West, "All the Best People are Born in August," Zwinglius Redivivus, online , https://zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com/
2016/08/01/all-the-best-people-are-born-in-august/, accessed 11 April 2017.
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- Mediterranean Man: Adapted from image of man used
at "From Jesus to Christ: Jesus' Many Faces," PBS Frontline, online,
http://www.pbs.org/
wgbh/pages/frontline/
shows/religion/jesus/, 29 January 2003. -
- John Dominic Crossan:
"Biographies," PBS Frontline: From Jesus to Christ, online, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/
etc/bios.html,
28 January 2003. -
- Marcus Borg: "Marcus J. Borg," A Portrait
of Jesus: From Galilean Jew to the Face of God, published by Cam Howard, online,
http://www.united.edu/
portrait/borg.shtml,
28 January 2003. -
- John P. Meier: "John P. Meier: A Meier Primer,"
The Jesus Archive: E-Pistles, published by James A. Bacon, Jr., online,
http://www.jesusarchive.com/Epistle/02-05/
profile_may02.html,
28 January 2003. -
- E. P. Sanders: "Grawemeyer Award - Religion
1990 Winner: Dr. E. P. Sanders, Jesus and Judaism ," Louisville Grawemeyer
Award, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and University of Louisville,
online, http://www.grawemeyer.org/religion/previous/90.htm,
28 January 2003.
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- Paula Fredriksen: "Biographies," PBS
Frontline: From Jesus to Christ, online, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/
religion/etc/bios.html,
28 January 2003. |
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