James Dunn has written a little book entitled A New Perspective on Jesus, What the Quest of the Historical Jesus Missed (Acadia Studies in Bible and Theology, Baker Academic, 2005). The book is a much smaller version of his larger work Jesus Remembered (Christianity in the Making, vol. 1). In the book Dunn points out the flaws in the Quest for the Historical Jesus. This is nothing new, many have written on the subject. But Dunn not only points out the problems, he also provides a "new perspective" for the study of gospel texts that is sane and makes sense, two things often missing in this area.

Those who are familiar with gospel research know that the main question that scholars have asked about the gospels for the last two centuries is the question of whether the Jesus that we read about in the gospels is the same Jesus who actually lived and walked on the earth 2000 years ago. "Does the Jesus of history equal the Christ of faith?" is a question that has received so much attention that one is utterly bewildered by the amount of material on the subject. The answer to this question by much of "Quest" scholarship has been a resounding "no".

Dunn presents three major criticisms of "Quest" scholars. The first is that they assumed that the faith of Jesus' followers was a hindrance that obscured an accurate picture of him. This criticism could not be truer. The real Jesus, it is said, is buried under layers of faith-tradition, a faith that made him a savior when in reality he said or did nothing to imply this as his mission. The "savior-Jesus" was created post-Easter by the faith of his earliest followers. The real historical Jesus is hidden to us and can only be found by stripping away those elements in the text that betray the faith of his followers. When this is done the Jesus of the gospel accounts typically gets well-deserved "demotion" (note #6 of Robert Funk's "Twenty-One Thesis", in The Fourth R, Vol. 11,4 July/August 1998). Dunn counters that Jesus made a faith impact on his followers from the very beginning, not just after the Resurrection; attempting to strip that away in order to find the real Jesus is not only futile, but removes the very historical foundation of the gospel tradition.

The second criticism is that, although acknowledging that the traditions about Jesus were transmitted orally, the "Quest" scholars did not take into consideration just how much the oral character of the tradition shaped and at the same time preserved it. Many scholars have seen the oral transmission of the Jesus tradition as a detriment that guaranteed its corruption. Dunn seems to say that the stories of Jesus were passed in community and preserved in much the same way as a modern worship choruses. There are those who preserve the integrity of the song but there is also fluidity to each performance.

Finally, Dunn is very critical of the way in which scholars have accepted as authentic only those parts of the tradition where Jesus is unique or distinctive from his own world. The historical Jesus is the non-Jewish and non-Christian Jesus; the rest is embellishment. I liken this to using a nuclear weapon to get rid of the ants in your house. It will certainly work but little of the house is left! It's with the little bit left over that many have reconstructed an "historical" Jesus who, although a really great guy, most often looks very much like the ideology of the scholar who created him. Dunn turns the so-called criterion of dissimilarity on its head. It's not in the "distinctive Jesus" that we find the authentic tradition so much as the "characteristic Jesus." The gospels preserve those elements of Jesus' characteristic acts and words. These made a lasting impression on his followers and were preserved in their memory of him.

The book is worth reading for anyone who is interested in Gospel research. It would also be helpful to those in a situation where they find the reliability of the gospels being questioned. Although different, I liken it to reading Birger Gerhardsson's, The Reliability of the Gospel Tradition (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2001).

Posted by Dwight at 7:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am reading the book Unchristian, What the New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity . . . and Why It Matters. The book was written by David Kinnaman of The Barna Group, and Gabe Lyons, a friend of Kinnaman who thought up the idea for the book. I am only three chapters into it and I am already asking a lot of questions. The book, as the title implies, is about what "outsiders" (those the authors suggest might be atheists, agnostics, people of other faiths and unchurched people) think of Christians. The authors have concentrated their efforts on the views of the "Mosaics" and "Busters", a group encompassing people ages 19 to 41 that live in the U.S. So what do Mosaics and Busters think of Christians? They think that Christians are hypocritical, antihomosexual, sheltered, too political, judgmental and only communicate with non-believers to convert them (each accusation gets one chapter). The authors contend that true or not, these impressions have become reality. Thus, in the minds of many Mosaics and Busters Christians are "unchristian."

In the chapter entitled "hypocritical" the authors state that self-professing "born-again" believers in their research "fail to display much attitudinal or behavioral differences evidence of transformed lives…most of the lifestyle activities of born-again Christian were statistically equivalent to those of non-born-agains." (p. 47, happily, born-again Christians owned more Bibles, used less profanity in public, and bought less lottery tickets) Mosaic and Buster "outsiders" agree. When those who knew a Christian personally were asked, only 15% said that the lifestyle of their Christian friend was any different than anyone else. Interestingly, the respondents also indicated that Christian hypocrisy was not all that disturbing to them. Two reasons are given. First, this group expects to be disappointed by other people. Equally disturbing is the second reason. This group believes that having a good image is the highest goal of life and getting that image requires moral and ethical breaches. In the same way, Christians give the image of having it all together, and yet exhibit the same incongruence as everyone else between their words and actions. Mosaics and Busters "perceive us as employing the same tactics as everyone else to preserve our appearance of strength." (p. 45) In other words, why should anyone become a Christian if its adherents are no different than those of other faiths or non-belief?

The authors suggest that much of the problem is the way in which we have portrayed what it means to be "Christian." Being a Christian has been characterized as "not sinning." I remember as a kid thinking that being a Christian was more about not doing bad than doing good. If the essence of being a Christian is "not sinning" then we have set ourselves up for ridicule because we are bound to fail.

Personally, I am more confounded by the research that concludes that Christians live no differently that anyone else when it comes to their moral and ethical lives. Is this really true? I have no way of knowing for sure, but if it is true then I think we have a lot of soul searching to do. Does the indwelling Spirit bring about transformation as we walk in Christ that affects the way we live, or is that whole idea a bunch of garbage? I am not trying to give a moralistic sermon; I have no altar call to give. I just wonder if the author's research has correctly surmised the status of Christian behavior in America. If so, what does it mean that people who have the Spirit fail at living moral and ethical lives to the same degree as those who do not have the Spirit?

Posted by Dwight at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been a while since I have submitted anything. December is a wonderful month, but it is also extremely busy. I thought about a number of things and even wrote out a lengthy blog that I intended to post. After sleeping on it, I decided not to (too much personal info). I have, however, come to think about Christmas a bit differently this year because my recent musings. In short, I concentrated more on receiving this Christmas. I know that sounds terrible because Christmas is supposed to be about giving. But for me the "giving" theme quickly becomes not about what God gave us but about what we give others. Don't get me wrong, I love giving gifts at Christmas; but at least for me the emphasis on giving was the very thing that deflected my mind away from what I had received in the coming of Christ.

"Joy to the world,
The Lord has come,
Let earth receive her king".

Now, on a completely different note. . . .

They say in the Mid-West that if you don't like the weather, just wait a while. Yesterday in Springfield it was 71 degrees, today they say we may have snow. The change in weather brought very severe storms all last night. Tornado warning sirens were going off all until 3:30 AM. We do not have a basement in our house, so when the siren sounds the whole family goes into a little interior closet to sit until the storm passes. We did that several times last night. For a few minutes we had golf ball size hail. It was louder than I thought it would be. My Honda Civic has about 20 nice divots in the hood and top. I can't complain; Strafford, MO, just a couple miles away from us, was hit very hard with at least one fatality. I grew up in Oregon. We didn't have tornadoes!

I have to admit; I get a bit scared when we have weather like this. It reminds me of the feelings I got after earthquakes in Southern California. I struggle with knowing how much fear of events like this is healthy. I try not to overreact; I try to keep my head, but inside I don't like it at all. Occasionally after earthquakes I would run into someone who said that they weren't the least bit bothered by it. I have very little time for people who have no fear. Maybe it's because deep down I wish I could be as "brave." Some of those "brave" souls even implied that I didn’t trust God like they did. I think I trust God; it's the weather I don't trust! So with a little healthy fear I'm making it a New Years resolution to step up the effort to find a house with a basement and garage.

Posted by Dwight at 8:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)