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Summary: The Problems with the Quest for the Historical Jesus
Review: If you are looking to criticize the Quest for the Historical Jesus, this is a good place to turn. Johnson believes that historical criticism in general holds very limited possibilities and that the Jesus Seminar is particularly bad. He attacks the Seminar for their attempts to gain the attention of the media. He also criticizes the tequniques of the Seminar. After he finishes his polemic against the historical critical method, which is over half of the book, Johnson presents a constructive model. He holds that the real Jesus is the Jesus who is living and experienced by the church. The resurrection, he claims, is not historical (a human event in time and space) but is very real. The real Jesus is the one who suffered and died for others and teaches his disciples to follow him. Johnson's later book, Living Jesus, is a more complete explanation of this proposal.
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Summary: The Problems with the Quest for the Historical Jesus
Review: If you are looking to criticize the Quest for the Historical Jesus, this is a good place to turn. Johnson believes that historical criticism in general holds very limited possibilities and that the Jesus Seminar is particularly bad. He attacks the Seminar for their attempts to gain the attention of the media. He also criticizes the tequniques of the Seminar. After he finishes his polemic against the historical critical method, which is over half of the book, Johnson presents a constructive model. He holds that the real Jesus is the Jesus who is living and experienced by the church. The resurrection, he claims, is not historical (a human event in time and space) but is very real. The real Jesus is the one who suffered and died for others and teaches his disciples to follow him. Johnson's later book, Living Jesus, is a more complete explanation of this proposal.
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Summary: A welcome response to recent sensational Jesus books
Review: In "The Real Jesus", Luke Timothy Johnson provides a sure and steady critique of the pseudo-scholarship behind many of the recent historical Jesus books (including the efforts of the controversial Jesus seminar). Along with a provocative discussion of the roles of the media, university, and church in the "debate" about the historical Jesus, Prof. Johnson balances a sober assessment of the evidence with the wise admonition to follow the Jesus as testified by the gospels. Though a bit dry at first, the book soon becomes both exciting and relevant to any person seeking to relate the Jesus of history to the Christ of faith.
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Summary: Caught Up in the Jesus Seminar Debate
Review: In his introduction Luke Timothy Johnson writes that he meant to "blow the whistle on a form of scholarship" which he considered "misguided and misleading." Instead he found himself caught up in a continuing debate over the Jesus Seminar, a debate propelled by the media which Johnson thought the wrong place for "such discussions to occur." It is contra the Jesus Seminar that Johnson writes. The JS is a small self-selected group of scholars unaffiliated with groups such as the Society of Biblical Literature. Though it does contain scholars of note, it does not contain scholars from many major institutions such as Yale, Emory, Duke, or Chicago.Johnson next engages a number of scholars and other writers such as Thiering, Wilson (just a writer), Spong (also not an NT scholar), Borg and Crossan. To put it succinctly, Johnson finds that Jesus has been turned into a "cultural critique" that many think the world needs. For Johnson this is "platitudinous." Instead Johnson argues that the Gospels can tell us something about the historical Jesus even though they reveal a theological agenda. Further he argues that historical knowledge is normative for Christain faith. (Fast forward toward the end of the book.) From non-canonical sources, Johnson finds covergences of evidence. From Jospehus, Tacitus, the Babylonian Talmud, Lucian of Samasota, Pliny, etc., Johnson finds that Christos was a virtual name of a man who lived in Palestine who was known as a wonder worker and a teacher and who was executed by Pontius Pilate. The followers of this man were known by religious designations and _never_ as a political movement. Other convergences are drawn from the Pauline writings, Hebrews, and the Gospels. Johnson thus concludes that the earliest Christian literature shows a deep consistancy as "Jesus as Messiah." Though page 166 is not the end of the book, there Johnson raises the pivotal question of whether some of the claims for the pursuit of the hsitorical Jesus are not flights from the NT texts. It is there that Johnson says one can find the real Jesus.
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Summary: A Helpful Guide to Understaning the Historical Jesus Debate
Review: In the mid-1990's, the popular media was paying great attention to the work of the so called "Jesus Seminar." This group offered new and often controversial interpretations of the gospels. Headlines of major magazines would often read "Did Jesus Really Teach the Our Father?" or "Is the Resurrection True?" Sometimes the magazines would have articles about these issues and devote front covers to them, often at Christmas or Easter. Some of the conclusions of the Jesus Seminar were interesting and enlightening, but in many cases were misleading. The Jesus Seminar needed a careful and critical response from those who did not agree with their positions, and this response came from noted Biblical scholar Luke Timothy Johnson. Johnson looks at the major players in the historical Jesus debate, and refutes many of them, though he also acknowledges their contributions. Johnson's major critique is that the Jesus Seminar looks only at certain phrases of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, as well as the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, while discounting much of the other portions of the New Testament, especially St. Paul. Johnson acknowledges the critical role that the sayings of Jesus play in understanding Jesus Christ, but believes that we cannot possibly understand Jesus if we do not look at the other writings of the New Testament and how early Christians understood Jesus. He further details this position in his book LIVING JESUS. Johnson's view is more holistic than that of the Jesus Seminar, and fits how many non-Fundamentalist Christian groups see Jesus Christ. It should also be noted that Johnson is not a conservative scholar. He is somewhat progressive and not all of his views are consistent with some traditional Christian thinkers. Johnson is not a conservative attacking liberals but one progressive defending traditional beliefs about Jesus Christ. The book is easy to read, and Johnson fairly represents all sides of the debate. Even those who may not agree with all of his positions will find the book helpful simply because he is able to analyze the debate as he offers his position.
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Summary: Whittles away the chaff
Review: Johnson's book is excellent. His basic thesis is that a historian must either accept that the four canonical gospels and Acts are fairly accurate, or not. And if not, the historian can't then claim to discover some "new Real Jesus", because without these five books there is absolutely no other source that gives even the rudiments of a chronology of Jesus and his followers, or even the rudiments of Jesus' motivations. Hence any reconstruction without these books is just speculation. Johnson shows how both the respectable critics (Brown, Meier) and the fanciful pseudo-critics (Funk, Crossan) extrapolate well beyond the evidence available. Typically, they come up with a hypothesis in chapter one, add a new hypothesis in chapter two, and then by the middle of their books they are writing as if the "results" of their early chapters are certain. Johnson calls this the error of "creeping certitude". I should point out that Johnson is NOT discussing much about his own views regarding the historical truth of the Gospels. His views tend to be close to the Brown / Fitzmyer school -- the Gospels give an accurate summary of the teachings and actions of Jesus, and although many individual sayings or actions may be non-historical, each gospel taken as a whole accurately preserves the character and message of Jesus. But even if you incline towards a stricter view of the gospels' historical accuracy (a la Hahn / Laurentin / Blomberg) you will still fully appreciate Johnson's critiques of the failings of some modern scholars. On rare occasion, Johnson makes the same mistakes he is criticizing (on p. 150, he makes an assertion about what was in the mind of those who selected the Christian canon, even though on p. 132 he argues that historians have no business saying what was in someone's mind without direct evidence). And when he is talking of God and his Son, he sounds almost Arian (e.g., top of p. 142). But these issues are not germane to the main point of the book, which is a critique of how the historical-critical method is used by New Testament scholars.
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Summary: A good start to rational Christology
Review: Luke Johnson in The Real Jesus does something that all whom he criticizes does not: he emphatically states the limitations of his own field. He attacks the hubris with which scholars (or, those who refer to themselves as such) wield the mighty tool of the historical method of determining what is real, not just about the man, Jesus, but the foundations of the Christian faith. For faith it is: a belief based on a religious language and hermeneutic, in the same vain as the Gospel narratives. The title of the book is apt, not only because it reflects a similar sensationalism that those of the Jesus Seminar use with their literature. It is clearly tongue-in-cheek, for he is emphatic that there is a distinction between the sum of probabilities of historical events and "knowing" what is "real" about Jesus. In the end, he does not write about how the historical records or the events portrayed in these records tell us about the "real" Jesus, but how they in fact cannot one way or another. Jesus is a Jesus of faith, directed by the records, but having been brought alive through the presence of the "real" Jesus who works through Christianity today. What so few people understand (including JS scholars, if I may use that term) is that the biblical text is ONLY text and not the Bible unless read within a community of faith. This is basic theology. Without faith, you can tear apart the text and force out parts of it you don't want. Johnson sets the record straight on the use of scholarship, obliquely (or, perhaps overtly) scoffing at the attempt of the Jesus Seminar to assume that what is scholarly is what is true and, moreover, far-reaching enough to make statements on the validity of religious claims. There is no doubt that as a believer in the traditional Jesus as espoused by the creeds, Johnson is biased. His genius is in showing that this also can be most emphatically said about the interests of the participants of the Jesus Seminar.
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Summary: Finally a book that sets the record straight!
Review: Luke Timothy Johnson inspirational and well thought out book explains the real goal and aspirations of the 'Jesus Seminar'. His analysis and research, along with his strong grasp of the true 'historical Jesus' provides the reader with renewed faith in biblical scholarship. Bravo
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Summary: Exposing the 'Historical Jesus Movements' Misguided Quest
Review: Luke Timothy Johnson is a heavyweight in Christian scholarship and in this clear and concise book, he exposes the "misguided quest" of the Jesus Seminar. This book strengths lie in that Johnson, a first rate scholar, explains why the quest for a historical Jesus often fails. The book introduces the Jesus Seminar and some of their most popular teachers and scholars. One reviewer clamims that Johnson is Polemic, but I am curious what he considers polemic. Johnson is not polemic, but honest in his assesments of this group. He informs the reader which Seminar folk are actual scholars and which ones are not. Johnson then reminds the reader the "limitations of history" in trying to develop a historical Jesus. This area examines the limtations of this social science. He then develops what is "historical about Jesus" and the "Real Jesus." This book is an easy read, yet has enough depth that it adequately deals with such an important topic. While I cannot completely agree with Johnson on every detail, he has produced a great work which is neeeded as a counter-balance to the media circus that surrounds the Jesus Seminar and the often lack of serious scholastic response by "litarlist Bible Christians."
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Summary: Not merely an "attack" on the Jesus Seminar
Review: Luke Timothy Johnson is no fundamentalist. Johnson works in the milieu of critical scholarship while still maintaining a vibrant faith, much like the late Raymond Brown. Therefore, his observations in this book should not be dismissed as the rantings of rabid anti-scholar. There is much more to this book than criticism of the Jesus Seminar. The issues involved in contemporary biblical scholarship in general are articulated well. The main point of the book is that there are such severe limitations in historical research that any historical reconstruction of Jesus, i.e. "the historical Jesus" cannot be "the real Jesus" that is worshipped and followed by the church. The real Jesus is the one presented by the Gospels, and indeed by other sections of the New Testament (the letters of Paul, James, I Peter, etc.) Although the Jesus Seminar takes the brunt of the criticism here, Johnson also points out some of the methodological missteps of less radical scholars such as John P. Meier. This book makes some valid points and is essential reading to get another view in the lively area of contemporary Jesus scholarship.
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