The Social Setting of Jesus and the Gospels

Rating:
Summary: Abandon ethnocentricity, all ye who enter here!
Review: Editor Stegemann is to be commended for assembling a diverse and highly specialized field of writings into a survey which is about as cohesive as it can be given the few facts we have about Jesus and the vast body of Christian apologetics.

This book is a compilation of essays by contemporary academic writers each of whom take a very rigorous and detailed look at a different aspect of "the historical Jesus" and the origins of "the Jesus Movement". Bring your dictionary- this is not a casual read. And while the language sometimes seems almost showy in its complexit, a majority of the contributors present their ideas in an orderly fashion, and all have important conclusions.

What the editor sets out to do is ambitious: help the serious lay reader strip away the 21st century baggage we unwittingly bring to our reading of Jesus and his teachings. There are few conclusions here, and no proofs, but there are some wonderful insights.

The highly erudite approach to the material necessarily makes the treatment of Jesus seem a bit clinical. But I found it both informative and uplifting. This reader, at least, emerged from the labyrinth with the sense that Jesus-Messiah, avatar, healer, radical and yes, savior -survives the dissection and critique to be resurrected more provocative and inspiring than before.

Mr. Stegemann has done Christendom an important service by admitting the community of faith to the kind of discourse that undergirds the continuing Christian revolution.

I would give this book a fifth star if it had a glossary.