Key Events in the Life of the Historical Jesus, Recognition and Other Thoughts

As Christmas season approaches, I want to take this time to wish you a Merry Christmas. In Germany, where I am on Sabbatical, we have had nothing but snow the last few weeks. So it is quite white outside. This allows me to stay inside and work away. I have just completed a draft of my Biblical Theology of Luke-Acts and am now starting a short book on Love for a Finnish publisher.

As Christmas season approaches, I want to take this time to wish you a Merry Christmas. In Germany, where I am on Sabbatical, we have had nothing but snow the last few weeks. So it is quite white outside. This allows me to stay inside and work away. I have just completed a draft of my Biblical Theology of Luke-Acts and am now starting a short book on Love for a Finnish publisher.

I have been back from ETS, IBR and SBL in Atlanta last November, where we discussed a book I have edited with Robert Webb on the Historical Jesus entitled Key Events in the Life of the Historical Jesus (just out in paperback with Eerdmans). This book will likely not be understood by some. What we have done is to play by the rules of Historical Jesus study and made the case for 12 key events in Jesus' life in the process. There is a lot of discussion of historical background in the process. This book was a decade long collaborative project involving Jesus scholars in the IBR, eleven of us wrote essays on the twelve events plus and introduction and a conclusion wiht a chapter on method. James Charlesworth reviewed our book at IBR and gave it a solid thumbs up. In a realm where many people use historical argument to deconstruct Jesus, we have argued for the trustworthiness of these core events not by appealing to arguments  of theology and inspiration but by making a case for them through the methods others often use to raise doubts about events tied to Jesus. Also taking place at SBL was a discussion on historical method in which Dr. Webb, myself and Craig Keener participated as evangelicals with responses from Amy-Jill Levine and Robert Price. That was a lively couple of hours, but a solid conversation. If you are interested in Historical Jesus discussion, this book is full of information and detail. It does weigh in at 800 pages plus. 

Finally, we received a wonderful recognition this week as we were informed by Theology Masters that we were named among the top 50 Theology blogs on the Net. (Top 50 Blogs by Theology Professors) . Part of the credit goes to you all as responders to what we post.