Inventing Christic Jesuses: Rules and Warrants for Theology

Inventing Christic Jesuses: Rules and Warrants for Theology
Author: Charles A. Wilson
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2018-11-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1532643012

In the first comprehensive proposal for revisionist theology’s deployment of historical Jesus research, Inventing Christic Jesuses rejects positions that insulate theology from Jesus research. By setting out theological methods, warrants, and rules, in dialogue with an analysis of the Jesus historians of the Third Quest (c. 1980–2010), the study charts a path toward a quested christology positioned between categorical rejection and uncritical acceptance of historical results on Jesus. Volume 1, Method, analyzes the methods and values of historical research on Jesus and identifies the retrojective activity of value production when historians, in conversation with historical sources, invent images of Jesus. Volume 2, Christological Recommendations, gathers potential contributions of Jesus research for revisionist theology according to the cataphatic, apophatic, and eminent pattern of classical theology. By attending to the limits and opportunities afforded by historical research, both negative and positive, the argument retrieves for theology the complex way that historians shape same and different, association and dissociation in the production of their Jesuses. Then it analyzes how values shape Jesuses in a pervasive Narcissus project to invent a self (and a community) through imaging Jesus. Proposing that the disciplined invention of Jesuses is highly useful for theology, the book ends with recommendations for a quested christology.

Inventing Christic Jesuses, Volume 1

Inventing Christic Jesuses, Volume 1
Author: Charles A. Wilson
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2017-11-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1532631456

Inventing Christic Jesuses is the first comprehensive proposal for how revisionist theology can deploy historical Jesus research in a methodologically sophisticated way. Rejecting positions that insulate theology from Jesus research, the proposal sets out warrants and rules for a quested Christology in dialogue with an analysis of the conduct of historians of Jesus from the period of the Third Quest (c. 1980-2010). The volume Method analyzes for theology the methods and values of historical research on Jesus. It argues that the methodic construction of historical images of Jesus in conversation with sources is simultaneously a retrojective activity of value production. First, in defining the terms of the inquiry, Wilson locates a middle ground between hostility to questing and a too-ready application of historical results to Christology. He then identifies rules and warrants for the deployment of Jesus research in theology and reconstructs the notion of the retrojection of value in the production of a historical Jesus. The volume ends with a case study of retrojective Jesus production, an analysis and assessment of the new notion that Jesus is a sage in the tradition of wisdom.

Displacing Jesus

Displacing Jesus
Author: Charles A. Wilson
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2024-01-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1666763764

Displacing Jesus studies the inner workings of Thomas Jefferson’s editing and shortening of the Gospels of the New Testament, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. It uncovers the immanent moves of his editorial project and shows how he makes judgments on what to include and exclude from the Gospels. As the book analyzes Jefferson’s gospel, it reconstructs his cut-and-paste project as a displacing of the biblical story of Jesus into a war on Jewish authorities. Ignoring nearly all traditional religious themes, the new gospel reframes the story into a battle against the narrow and hypocritical morality of the leaders of Second Temple Judaism. Surprisingly, Jefferson’s editing does provide a robust, if not traditional, theology and a Christology centered in the passion of the Shepherd-Sage who performs his death for Wisdom. Displacing Jesus ends by connecting Jefferson’s creation in The Life and Morals with theological themes, with the history of his views on religion, and with comments on how new insights into Jefferson’s gospel can inform contemporary Jefferson research.

Inventing Christic Jesuses: Rules and Warrants for Theology

Inventing Christic Jesuses: Rules and Warrants for Theology
Author: Charles A. Wilson
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2018-11-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1532643039

In the first comprehensive proposal for revisionist theology's deployment of historical Jesus research, Inventing Christic Jesuses rejects positions that insulate theology from Jesus research. By setting out theological methods, warrants, and rules, in dialogue with an analysis of the Jesus historians of the Third Quest (c. 1980-2010), the study charts a path toward a quested christology positioned between categorical rejection and uncritical acceptance of historical results on Jesus. Volume 1, Method, analyzes the methods and values of historical research on Jesus and identifies the retrojective activity of value production when historians, in conversation with historical sources, invent images of Jesus. Volume 2, Christological Recommendations, gathers potential contributions of Jesus research for revisionist theology according to the cataphatic, apophatic, and eminent pattern of classical theology. By attending to the limits and opportunities afforded by historical research, both negative and positive, the argument retrieves for theology the complex way that historians shape same and different, association and dissociation in the production of their Jesuses. Then it analyzes how values shape Jesuses in a pervasive Narcissus project to invent a self (and a community) through imaging Jesus. Proposing that the disciplined invention of Jesuses is highly useful for theology, the book ends with recommendations for a quested christology.

Christ Among the Messiahs

Christ Among the Messiahs
Author: Matthew V. Novenson
Publisher: OUP USA
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2012-04-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0199844577

He then traces the rise and fall of "the messianic idea"' in Jewish studies and gives an alternative account of early Jewish messiah language: the convention worked because there existed both an accessible pool of linguistic resources and a community of competent language users. Whereas it is commonly objected that the normal rules for understanding "christos" do not apply in the case of Paul since he uses the word as a name rather than a title, Novenson shows that "christos" in Paul is neither a name nor a title but rather a Greek honorific, like Epiphanes or Augustus. Focusing on several set phrases that have been taken as evidence that Paul either did or did not use "christos" in its conventional sense, Novenson concludes that the question cannot be settled at the level of formal grammar. Examining nine passages in which Paul comments on how he means the word "christos", Novenson shows that they do all that we normally expect any text to do to count as a messiah text.

Knowable Word

Knowable Word
Author: Peter Krol
Publisher:
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2022-05-26
Genre:
ISBN: 9781949253337

Knowable Word offers a foundation on why and how to study the Bible. Through a running study Genesis 1, this new edition illustrates how to Observe, Interpret, and Apply the Scripture-and gives the vision behind each step.

The Enduring Authority of the Christian Scriptures

The Enduring Authority of the Christian Scriptures
Author: D. A. Carson
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 1256
Release: 2016
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0802865763

In this volume, thirty-seven first-rate evangelical scholars present a thorough study of biblical authority and a full range of issues connected to it. Recognizing that Scripture and its authority are now being both challenged and defended with renewed vigor, editor D.A. Carson assigned the topics that these select scholars address in the book. After an introduction by Carson to the many facets of the current discussion, the contributors present robust essays on relevant historical, biblical, theological, philosophical, epistemological, and comparative-religions topics. To conclude, Carson answers a number of frequently asked questions about the nature of Scripture, cross-referencing these FAQs to the preceding chapters. This comprehensive volume by a team of recognized experts will be the go-to reference on the nature and authority of the Bible for years to come. -- Amazon.

Feuerbach and the Search for Otherness

Feuerbach and the Search for Otherness
Author: Charles Alan Wilson
Publisher: Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers
Total Pages: 468
Release: 1989
Genre: Difference (Philosophy)
ISBN:

Feuerbach and the Search for Otherness reconstructs the university writings (1824-32) of the German philosopher Ludwig A. Feuerbach (1804-72). An exercise in the history of ideas, the book argues that the early Feuerbach is obsessed with the problem of subjectivism and, consequently, embarks on an independent project to liberate philosophy from the ego: the search for otherness. By analyzing all the earliest materials from the Feuerbach corpus, including the original dissertation, the letters, and the recently published Erlangen lectures, it proposes a theory concerning the principle of coherence within the corpus, and contributes to an understanding of Feuerbach's view of philosophy, his criticism of religion and his reception of Hegel.

The Universal Christ

The Universal Christ
Author: Richard Rohr
Publisher: Convergent Books
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2019-03-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1524762105

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From one of the world’s most influential spiritual thinkers, a long-awaited book exploring what it means that Jesus was called “Christ,” and how this forgotten truth can restore hope and meaning to our lives. “Anyone who strives to put their faith into action will find encouragement and inspiration in the pages of this book.”—Melinda Gates In his decades as a globally recognized teacher, Richard Rohr has helped millions realize what is at stake in matters of faith and spirituality. Yet Rohr has never written on the most perennially talked about topic in Christianity: Jesus. Most know who Jesus was, but who was Christ? Is the word simply Jesus’s last name? Too often, Rohr writes, our understandings have been limited by culture, religious debate, and the human tendency to put ourselves at the center. Drawing on scripture, history, and spiritual practice, Rohr articulates a transformative view of Jesus Christ as a portrait of God’s constant, unfolding work in the world. “God loves things by becoming them,” he writes, and Jesus’s life was meant to declare that humanity has never been separate from God—except by its own negative choice. When we recover this fundamental truth, faith becomes less about proving Jesus was God, and more about learning to recognize the Creator’s presence all around us, and in everyone we meet. Thought-provoking, practical, and full of deep hope and vision, The Universal Christ is a landmark book from one of our most beloved spiritual writers, and an invitation to contemplate how God liberates and loves all that is.