Reddit reviews Jesus as a Figure in History, Second Edition: How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee
We found 3 Reddit comments about Jesus as a Figure in History, Second Edition: How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Well, there is lots of dispute, haha, that's why historical Jesus studies are a thing. Sometimes scholars talk about "criterion" when studying texts, but I don't know the nitty-gritty about that.
AskHistorians has a comment explaining it pretty well. A book on the subject that I enjoy is from Mark Powell, Jesus as a Figure in History.
edit: the Ask Historians comment explains why Jesus' historicity is not in doubt, and the Powell book is an introduction to the study of the "historical Jesus" and compares different contemporary scholars' views on what the that Jesus looks like.
Reza Aslan’s book needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt. Aslan passes contentious scholarship off as basically true, uses outdated and disproven sources, and there’s a lot of questions about his methodology.
It’s a compelling read but the scholarship is just not there.
Jesus as a Figure in History is actually a solid introduction. It outlines a history of the historical Jesus movement, comments on methodology, and summarized the arguments of various figures while also addressing the criticism their work faces.
This is important because Aslan’s work draws upon discredited 19th century work and the Jesus Seminar. The Jesus Seminar is rightly criticized for lacking a proper methodology.
Jesus As A Figure in History gives a balanced overview of the field.