The Quest of the Historical Jesus

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 416 pages
• Published by: Dover Publications; Dover Ed edition February 11, 2005
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0486440273
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0486440279
• Book Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 15.5 ounces

Product Review


"The best introduction to the subject Scholarly and urbane A fine example of critical exposition A mystery story on the highest possible level, enlivened by Dr. Schweitzer's wit, and enriched by his effective command of simile and metaphor Affords a wide view of the whole library of critical theology." -- Saturday Review --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description
Groundbreaking study that established the reputation of the famed theologian traces the search for the historical human being of Jesus. Schweitzer looks at works of more than 50 18th- and 19th-century authors and scholars and concludes that many of the earlier historical reconstructions of Christ were largely fantasies. The criterion for all subsequent studies.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: The Quest of the Historical Jesus: A Critical Study of Its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede (The Albert Schweitzer Library) (Paperback) This landmark classic demonstrates the cliche of "the painting telling more about the painter than the subject being painted". People use the gospels as a mirror for their own beliefs and reconstruct Jesus accordingly in their self-images. Schweitzer's Jesus, by contrast, stands on a foreign landscape of apocalyptic fanaticism -- a deluded prophet who thought he was God's instrument sent to announce the end of history; burning with apocalyptic zeal, marching to Jerusalem, confident he could force God's hand and usher in the kingdom through a voluntary death. But it didn't happen. Jesus was crushed by the system he defied, and the drama ended on the cross. Even if Schweitzer's portrait of Jesus is a bit extreme, he got the basics right -- Jesus the eschatological prophet -- and closed the curtains on the liberal quest for Jesus. He was a prophet himself, for we have another liberal quest today in the work of the Jesus Seminar. Instead of Jesus the liberal Protestant, the Seminar gives us Jesus the liberal humanist, disguised as a non-apocalyptic sage. For more up-to-date works which follow Schweitzer's apocalyptic prophet, see E.P. Sanders' "The Historical Figure of Jesus", Paula Fredriksen's "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews", and Dale Allison's "Jesus of Nazareth: Millenarian Prophet". Allison's book, in particular, is worth its weight in gold.