The Christian Jesus

There are so many versions of "The man from Nazareth" as to make The Christian Jesus liable to seem a pretentious or aggressive title. That a "Christian Jesus" exists for historic faith is not in doubt - and is explored here with the help both of poetry and theology. Diverse versions of the "Christian Jesus" do not preclude the sundry cases for the "Muslim Jesus", the "Hindu Jesus", and most of all for the "Jewish Jesus". Indeed the third, during the last half century, has been vigorously presented by Jewish scholarship. It was from the very heart of "Jewishness" and its "Messiah" that he and his immediate Jewish disciples gave to human history a confidence concerning "God in Christ" - a confidence called "Christian". New Testament writings tell a faith - of which Jesus is the theme and center - read as the incidence of the divine in the human, the earthly happening of the eternal intention. Of a "Jesus" who has well-nigh innumerable descriptives, this is the Christian one. Some scholars view historical evidences as dubious or irrecoverable, while others allow it only as an illusion, from which to indulge their own construct. This book sets out a vigorous analysis of this deep theological question.