Word: christly
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Jesus did not claim to be the Messiah. Such assertions represent the church's later belief, which Gospel writers inserted into the life of Christ...
Tubingen's Rainer Riesner contends, for instance, that like most rabbis of his day, Christ probably preached in a pithy, aphoristic style that was likely to be faithfully remembered and recorded by his followers. "There is evidence that Jesus taught his disciples to recall his teachings by heart," says Methodist Thomas Oden of New Jersey's Drew Theological School. "We have the ipsissima verba, the exact words of Jesus. Why should they have been reported if they hadn't been actually remembered...
...first time that Pilate was a 1st century Roman governor, as the Bible reports. More significantly, the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in 1947, demonstrate a deeply ingrained 1st century Jewish belief in the imminent arrival of a Messiah-like figure and the need for spiritual renewal -- teachings that anticipate Christ's message. "After the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, you could no longer say there was no historical Jesus," says Theologian Otto Betz of Tubingen, once a redoubt of Bultmannian doubters...
...does the search for the Jesus of history have any relevance for believers? Some thinkers, like Bultmann before them, are content to distinguish between a Christ of faith, who is knowable, and a historical Jesus, who is not. Other liberals, however, are searching fervently for a real-life Jesus, whether sage or prophet, to fill what they see as an urgent need for spiritual nourishment and a renewed impetus for social reform. "Jesus may be one of the finest persons who ever lived, but the average person doesn't have any access to him," says Robinson of Claremont. He believes...
...idea that Jesus was God, let alone a member of a complex theological partnership called the Trinity. They emphasize his human qualities, in the hope that believers might better identify with him. But will most people be inspired by this sort of Jesus, who is so different from the Christ of the New Testament, who has captivated artists and peasants alike over the centuries? Will they want to stake their lives on a person about whom so little is certain and who is only dimly divine...