1st Edition
The Symbolic Jesus Historical Scholarship, Judaism and the Construction of Contemporary Identity
By William E. Arnal
Copyright 2005
106 Pages
by
Routledge
106 Pages
by
Routledge
128 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
It is widely accepted that Jesus was a Jew. However, both Christian and New Testament scholarship have a strong anti-Jewish history. 'The Symbolic Jesus' presents the controversies surrounding the Jewishness of Jesus. It examines the insistence among historical Jesus scholars that Jesus was a Jew and the ways this frames the figure of Jesus in ancient Christian literature. The book examines the anti-Jewish legacy of the past and more recent approaches to biblical scholarship. Contemporary identity issues - scholarly, political, religious and cultural - are shown to lie at the heart of the debate.
1. Introduction: Mad Mel and the Cultural Prominence of Jesus; 2. Bad Karma: Anti-Semitism in New Testament Scholarship; 3. A Manufactured Controversy: Why the "Jewish Jesus" is a Red Herring; 4. The Jewish Jesus and Contemporary Identity; 5. Conclusions
Biography
William Arnal is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.