Wikipedia:WikiProject Christianity/Outreach/September 2013



From the Editor September headlines...

Focus on... THE HISTORICAL JESUS

Since the 18th century a number of scholars have undertaken research to better understand the historical Jesus. The Quest for the historical Jesus article discusses the history of these efforts.

The 19th century efforts (the first quest) often involved romanticized elements that went far beyond the gospel accounts. These efforts were criticized by Albert Schweitzer in 1906 for their lack of a historical basis and a period of "no quest" persisted in the early part of the 20th century. This period saw the rise of "minimalism" which assumed that very little can be known about Jesus. The start of the second quest in 1953 ended minimalism based on the realization that the gospel accounts include "historical memories" which can be extracted and analyzed.

The third quest started at the end of the 20th century based on the use of new research methods, and continues to date. In the meantime theories about the nonexistence of Jesus all but disappeared from academic circles, and the 21st century witnessed a resurgence of efforts to build profiles of the historical Jesus.

From the bookshelf The Jesus Quest: The Third Search for the Jew of Nazareth by Ben Witherington 2005 ISBN 0830815449

In this book Ben Witherington provides a broad over of the history and progress of the quests for the historical Jesus. The treatment is quite comprehensive and Witherington reviews all the major scholarly issues in the field.

Did you know...
 * ... that in earlier times, every Eastern Orthodox monk trained in iconography had to start by painting the Transfiguration of Jesus based on the belief that it is painted not so much with the eye, but with the Tabor light and he had to train his eyes to it.

Calendar .........

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