The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus Book

Dale C. Allison's 'The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus' is a brief but invaluable addition to the ever-growing body of literature on the historical Jesus.

What sets this apart from the likes of Sanders, Crossan and Wright is not that Allison is able to tell us anything that would move historical Jesus studies forward. It is instead that contemporary historical Jesus scholarship as a whole cannot move forward because each 'quester' finds only themselves in their own historical Jesus and because they are not really in a position to know anything with certainty.

Allison makes some startling concessions here and does not even begin to defend what his concessions reveal. Take for example his concession that Jesus did not know the time of his return. This was something CS Lewis admitted to be an embarrassment to Christianity, and Allison states clearly that Jesus likely did not know because it there was to be no return that would happen, at least not at a fixed time. This is quite a concession and a brave one to make, and I respect Allison for his honesty. He instead defines the return as more of an eschatological hope that the injustice of this world would be counterbalanced in some way. He in fact defines all of Jesus' teachings, at least those we can attribute to Jesus, as being based on hope.

I really want to read everything Allison has written because of this brief but incredibly intellectually honest book, and I am very glad that I have moved away from evangelical scholarship towards scholarship like this. Knowing that others struggle with the same doubts that I do and work within historical-critical scholarship, and yet still remain devout Christians, is something that I am relieved to hear. Not that my faith was lessening, but I did think that there was a slippery slope that gave me good reason to believe that I should read the likes of Allison with caution. I need not have worried.