The Case for the Real Jesus: A Journalist Investigates Current Attacks on the Identity of Christ
by Lee Strobel
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Book Summary Information
Author: Lee StrobelEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-09-10
ISBN: 031024210X
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Zondervan
Book Reviews of The Case for the Real Jesus: A Journalist Investigates Current Attacks on the Identity of Christ
Book Review: Brilliant Scholarship Made Accessible and, yes, Fun
Summary: 5 Stars
Lee Strobel's "The Case for the Real Jesus" is among that very rare class of books that are both deeply informative on timeless matters and yet as absorbing as a summer blockbuster. I would recommend this book to just about anyone - of any belief system - from teen to adult. "The Case for the Real Jesus" escorts the reader into a glamorous, rarefied realm: that of world-class scholars who devote their lives to studying ancient manuscripts and early Christianity, and makes those scholars' work accessible and absorbing.
"The Case for the Real Jesus" isn't just for Christians. It interrogates ideas prominent in academia today. Is there really such a thing as "truth," and who gets to claim it?
"Real Jesus" is the fourth of a series. Previous volumes: "The Case for Christ," ". . . for a Creator," and ". . . for Faith." In the current volume, the question is, have recent discoveries eliminated the Jesus in the New Testament?
Strobel first summarizes the positions of the critics of Christianity with whom he disagrees, then he provides representational quotes from these critics' work, and then a complete citation. If the reader wants an entire book arguing that Jesus is a manifestation of Egyptian mythology, Strobel provides the information necessary to locate that book. Only after Strobel provides a scrupulously fair, thorough, and annotated summary of his opponents' viewpoint does he presents the case *for* the Christian point of view. That's why his books begin with the words "The Case for..." because that is the case he is presenting.
"Real Jesus" takes on recent re-imaginings: the Gnostic Jesus, the Jesus who survived crucifixion, the Pagan Jesus, the married Jesus, the Jesus who bears no relation to Hebrew scripture.
Inevitably, "Real Jesus" takes on one of the biggest trends in academic thought today: a postmodernism that implies that anything can be true, if one or more people want it to be, and that nothing is really true. Merely saying "2 + 2 = 4" can be denounced, on a campus today, as an oppressive act. If someone else feels that 2 + 2 = 5, then stating the true equation threatens to "oppress" the "minority" viewpoint and "diversity." Strobel doesn't mention this, but Alan Sokal, in 1996, demonstrated the power of this refusal of truth in his "Social Text" hoax. He submitted a parody of a scholarly article and a scholarly journal published it as if it were true. A scholar could make up a politically correct text about Jesus and get it published by an academic press. Strobel documents just such a case. Morton Smith published with Harvard a commentary on a fraudulent "gospel." Postmodern academia's reach alerts all of us, no matter our positions on any issue, that we need to examine our own answer to "What is truth?"
Strobel demands that the scholars he interviews produce evidence, arranged in compliance with the demands of classical - not postmodern - logic, to support their positions. They do. The scholars Strobel interviews are amazingly well qualified, with multiple publications in a wide variety of scholarly venues. They come with recommendations not just of their fellow evangelical Christians, but with the plaudits of their scholarly opponents. One expert Strobel cites in his analysis of Bart Ehrman's claims, for example, is praised by none other than Bart Ehrman himself.
Strobel's bold, countercultural conclusion: there is such a thing as truth, the church has it, and has long supported the truth with evidence. This affirmation does not come cheaply or easily, but only after hours of hard questions and thorough investigation.
As much as I liked this book, there are a few things I wish Strobel had done differently. I've read all four of his books twice, and most of the scholars Strobel interviews are WASP males. I don't remember a single Catholic or woman, and few minorities. Strobel prides himself on his inexhaustible efforts to discover truth, and the universality of his message. The inclusion of Catholic, ethnic, and women scholars in Strobel's next book would be a more convincing demonstration of the universality of Strobel's message. Certainly when Strobel, and other Evangelicals, tot up the number of Christians today, they include Catholics in their calculation. It's time for them to open the door, and their hearts, a bit wider, and practice a stronger affirmation of the unity of those who pray the Apostles Creed.
I felt uncomfortable reading the chapter devoted to refuting recent Jewish claims that Jesus could not have been the Messiah. Strobel is careful to interview a Jewish-born Christian scholar. Michael L. Brown is unequivocal in his insistence that if Jesus was not the messiah promised in Hebrew Scriptures, no one could be. Strobel is also careful to admit the damage caused by Christian anti-Semitism. I wish, though, that Strobel's book had included an emphatic statement on the need for Christian respect of Jewish beliefs.
Because he does not interview a folklorist, Strobel misses an important point about the theory that Jesus was merely a refurbished pagan figure. Bronislaw Malinowski, in "Myth in Primitive Psychology," emphasized how traditional people enforce a strict genre system that emphatically differentiates between material told to recount historical events occurring in real time, and mythical events from different dispensation. Applying this law to the New Testament, it is clear that its authors were *not*imitating others' myths. They were reporting events they believed that they witnessed themselves in real time. Strobel does effectively demolish the "Jesus is Mithra" nonsense using other methods, but this folkloric proof could have been marshaled, as well.
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Summary of The Case for the Real Jesus: A Journalist Investigates Current Attacks on the Identity of Christ
Has modern scholarship debunked the traditional Christ? Has the church suppressed the truth about Jesus to advance its own agenda? What if the real Jesus is far different from the atoning Savior worshipped through the centuries? In The Case for the Real Jesus, former award-winning legal editor Lee Strobel explores such hot-button questions as: * Did the church suppress ancient non-biblical documents that paint a more accurate picture of Jesus than the four Gospels? * Did the church distort the truth about Jesus by tampering with early New Testament texts? * Do new insights and explanations finally disprove the resurrection? * Have fresh arguments disqualified Jesus from being the Messiah? * Did Christianity steal its core ideas from earlier mythology? Evaluate the arguments and evidence being advanced by prominent atheists, liberal theologians, Muslim scholars, and others. Sift through expert testimony. Then reach your own verdict in The Case for the Real Jesus.Bibles Books
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