Peter Kirby

I got a followup, from our concerned Christian,

Is there anything in the past 60 years to which I should point him for the "pro" case?

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Peter Kirby

No Robots

Why the time limit? IMO, the two best books are Brunner's Our Christ (or via: amazon.co.uk) and Klausner's Jesus of Nazareth (or via: amazon.co.uk), from 1921 and 1922, respectively.

jakejonesiv

I would say The Real Jesus : The Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus and the Truth of the Traditional Gospels (or via: amazon.co.uk)by Luke Timothy Johnson.

Against the existence, the Jesus Puzzle (or via: amazon.co.uk)by Earl Doherty of course.

But really, it is hard to beat The Christ Myth (or via: amazon.co.uk)by Arthur Drews. A tolerable English translation is available at Amazon.com. He is a bit out of date on some of his references, but all the key points are there. It is remarkably good considering how old it is.

Plus it inspired Leopold Wertheimer (aka Constantine Brunner) to opine that Jesus was too Genius to have been a myth.

Jake Jones IV

Peter Kirby

But isn't the L. T. Johnson book trash?

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Peter Kirby

jakejonesiv

:devil1:

jgibson000

Our Christ is a horrible book. Just wretched in its dogmatic excesses. You do yourself no credit in recommending it or in thinking that it would be convinging to anyone except the choir.

Far better and certainly more up to date is Robert Van Voorst's Jesus Outside the Gospels (or via: amazon.co.uk)

( http://www.dovebook.com/new/bookdesc.asp?BookID=22508 ).

There's also F.F. Bruce's older but sturdy Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament (or via: amazon.co.uk) (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1974. ISBN 0-8028-1575-8) which should be read if for nothing else than Bruce's discussion of the TF.

Also worth a look is the section on the evidence for Jesus in Theissen & Mertz, The Historical Jesus (or via: amazon.co.uk)



Jeffrey Gibson

No Robots

This is not quite accurate. Brunner does criticize Drews in the appendix to the book on Christ (the full text of the appendix in available here). The book on Christ is part of Brunner's elaboration of his doctrine of the folk and the people of spirit. The elaboration of this doctrine began before Drews published Die Christusmythe.

No Robots

Have you read it? In its entirety or just the appendix on mythicism? Can you point to any specific examples of "dogmatic excesses?" Are you aware that the only scholarly treatment of Brunner's book was in 1934 by Kornelis Miskotte, who likened Brunner to Kafka and Bloch, saying that these are men "in whom apocalyptic . . . 'atheistic' mysticism, and the problematic of Job are revived"?

No Robots

Oh, yeah, and you might want to trundle over to the University of Chicago and take a peek at this 1955 dissertation:

Constantin Brunner and twentieth century German thought / Werner Low.

motorhead

How about John Meier's Marginal Jew series?

A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus: The Roots of the Problem and the Person, Vol. 1 (or via: amazon.co.uk)