A Note to Instructors ix
Introduction xii
An Invitation and Some "Ground Clearing" xii
Shifting Terrain xv
A Road Map for What Follows xvii
Chapter 1: The Story of the Quest(s) 1
The Old Quest: The Challenge of the Enlightenment 2
Beyond the Question of the Historical Jesus 11
The New Quest 17
The Third Quest: Some Distinguishing Features 19
The Problem of History: Understanding the Limits and Value of History 23
Conclusion 25
Chapter 2: A Tentative Historical Portrait of Jesus 28
How Do We Decide What to Include? 29
Applying the Criteria: A Tentative Sketch of the Historical Jesus 35
Conclusion 65
Chapter 3: The Resurrection 69
The Old Testament Period 70
The Afterlife in the Intertestamental Period 78
The New Testament Period 82
The Contemporary Debate 88
Conclusion 93
Chapter 4: New Testament Christologies 96
The Growth of New Testament Christology: Titles, Roles, and Patterns 97
Christology in Paul 104
Christology in the Synoptic Gospels 109
Wisdom and Logos: The Confluence of Jewish and Greek Ideas 115
Conclusion 120
Chapter 5: The Development of Classical Christology 122
The Way to Nicaea (100-300) 123
Political and Theological Conflict as Engines for Doctrinal Development: Constantinople I (381) 132
Political and Theological Conflict as Engines for Doctrinal Development: Ephesus (431) 135
Schism and Compromise: Between Ephesus and Chalcedon (433-448) 138
More Politics and More Doctrine: The Council of Chalcedon (451) 139
Conclusion 150
Chapter 6: The Work of Christ 153
Biblical Images of Salvation 154
Soteriology through the Middle Ages 160
The Reformation and the Doctrine of Penal Substitution (1500-1600) 168
Conclusion 174
Chapter 7: Christology and Social Transformation 177
Can We Still Talk about Sin? 180
Revolutionary Christology 189
Conclusion 204
Chapter 8: Jesus and Other Religions 208
Christian Response to Religious Pluralism 210
Christology and Pluralism at the Turn of the Century 217
The Return of a High-Descending Christology 226
Conclusion 234
Glossary 237
List of Charts and Sidebars
Chapter 1
Important Movements and Eras 3
Person of Interest: Bruno Bauer 19
Person of Interest: Albert Schweitzer 19
The Historical Jesus at the Turn of the Last Century 17
The Reformation and Contemporary Christianity 21
Christianity and Existentialism 21
Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls 21
Chapter 2
Selectively Sketching Jesus 29
Stages in the Formation of the Gospel Tradition 31
The Markan Hypothesis, the Two-Source Theory, and Q 33
Primary Criteria for Historical Jesus Research 36
The Family of Jesus and the Government of the Church 36
Person of Interest: Josephus 50
The Major Sects in First-Century Palestinian Judaism 50
Some Modern Approaches to New Testament Eschatology 55
Person of Interest: Apollonius of Tyana 59
The Battle to Understand Judaism in the New Testament 59
Chapter 3
The Afterlife in History and Tradition 73
The Canon, the Apocrypha, and the Deuterocanonicals 75
Person of Interest: Philo 79
Some Messianic Figures in Judaism 87
The Variant Accounts of Jesus' Resurrection in the Gospels 91
Person of Interest: N. T. Wright 91
Chapter 4
Some Titles, Roles, and Patterns in New Testament Christology 101
Person of Interest: Paul 105
Kenosis and Buddhism 107
The Parting of Ways: Christianity and Judaism 111
Gospel Portraits of Jesus: For Particular Audiences 114
Person of Interest: Origen 119
List of Charts and Sidebars
Chapter 5
Caesar and the Church 128
Person of Interest: Helena, the Mother of Constantine 129
Alexandria and Antioch 134
Marian Doctrines 136
The Emergence of Rome in the Christological Controversies 142
The First Five Ecumenical Councils: A Timeline 144
Ancient and Modern Christianity Beyond the Western Comfort Zone 147
Person of Interest: Theodore of Mopsuestia 149
Chapter 6
Sacrifice in Ancient Israel 158
René Girard's Theory of Sacrifice 165
Person of Interest: Peter Abailard 167
The Reformation and the Counter Reformation 171
Person of Interest: John Calvin 173
Soteriologies: A Simplified Comparative Chart 173
Chapter 7
Person of Interest: Søren Kierkegaard 179
Ricoeur and Fowler on Faith Development 181
Lonergan and the Notion of Bias 184
The Holocaust and Christian Theology 187
Person of Interest: Elizabeth Cady Stanton 190
Karl Marx, Liberation Theologies, and the Magisterium 191
Some Additional Forms of Contemporary Feminist Theologies 198
Cosmic and Metacosmic Religiousness 203
Chapter 8
Religion, Tolerance, and Armed Conflict: Islam and Christianity 211
Christian Perspectives on Religious Pluralism 216
The Incarnation of God in Hinduism: The Avatars of Vishnu 219
Person of Interest: Pope John Paul II 225
Person of Interest: Henri de Lubac 230
A Divide within Contemporary Roman Catholic Theology: Rahner, von Balthasar and Kant 231