The Contemporary Quest for Jesus (Facets (Fortress Press).)

Rating:
Summary: A dense, compact look at the quests for the historical Jesus
Review: The Contemporary Quest for Jesus is a compact summation of the historical search for Jesus over the course of the last two centuries, a description of the new scholarly trend in which N.T. Wright resides, and a tentative look at the future of this research. Wright describes and critiques "the Critical Movement" initiated by scholars such as Reimarus and Schweitzer (which seemingly sought to destroy the foundations of Christianity), "the New Quest" most recently reignited by the work of the Jesus Seminar, and the more modern "Third Quest." He makes constant references to the prominent scholars among the three quests and their ideas, but his main purpose is to establish the groundwork for his own vision of what the "Third Quest" methodology should be.

He lists three advantages of the "Third Quest" movement: it takes Jesus' Jewish background very seriously, its proponents do not have any axe to grind in the form of a theological or political agenda that would color their observations, and the quest is beginning to take on the essential questions Wright feels must be taken up. These five questions, roughly stated, are these: How does Jesus fit into the Judaism of his day? What were his aims? Why did he die? How did the early church come into being and why did it take the form it did? and Why are the Gospels what they are? He euphemistically poses a sixth question: So what?

For a fundamentalist such as myself, the ideas of all three of these quests are rather shocking (as is the implication Wright makes of fundamentalism as "contrived literalism"). Scholars are asking questions that, to me, need not be asked, and they are disregarding the evidence of the Gospels that plainly provide those answers. It is disturbing to see Jesus' resurrection referred to as "the Easter problem," Jesus' trial looked upon with pure skepticism, the accounts of Jesus' life dismissed as pure fiction or, at best, propagandistic creations of the early church, and to hear learned men ask why in the world the early church believed Jesus died for the sins of mankind.

In terms of the historical search for Jesus, which is a fascinating if somewhat frustrating form of scholarship, this book does not make for a very good introduction. At less than one hundred pages, this book crams a ton of information into a very compact form; furthermore, Wright seems to assume a basic familiarity with the literature on the part of the reader (he also expects the reader to have read some of his own more detailed monographs already, casually referring to them many times). Wright's analysis of the present and future state of the "Third Quest" is very useful in coming to grips with the manner and method of current scholarship. Still, I would only recommend this book as a refresher-type read for someone with a basic familiarity with the prominent schools of thought on historical Jesus research. For laymen unfamiliar with the varied schools of thought on the contemporary quest for Jesus, there is just not enough detail available here to properly ground you in the ideas and theories of academic research and criticism.