Jesus and Christian Origins

There has been a varied range of studies on Jesus. Though now it seems there is a pause and perhaps opening to new orientation, with the aim not simply to cover old ground or repeat past mistakes. This is a study of Jesus and Christian origins with a primary focus on the Gospels. There have been comprehensive and important contributions, like N. T. Wright's The New Testament and the People of God. At the same time, more defined studies have appeared. The purpose here is not to develop particular New Testament themes as such. Rather, in this volume the writers take up Gospel related topics in the context of the early church in order to illuminate specific baselines for New Testament interpretation and to discern directions toward a new paradigm.

There is much to do. The need to take account of reception history and so of the "external evidence" for the New Testament documents; also eyewitness and oral tradition as embodied in the Gospel accounts. The genre of the Gospels with reference to biography or history has its own importance. The reception and "authority" of the Gospels in the early church marks another baseline. Jesus in his Jewish context and in relation to emerging Christianity is also a critical baseline for interpretation.