Frederick F. Bruce

Claudiana

G. A. Wells
History
Open Court Publishing Company
3.5
Did Jesus actually exist as a historical personage roughly corresponding to the various stories given in the four New Testament gospels and other Christian documents? Was he really born in Bethlehem and crucified by Pilate?

In The Jesus Legend, G.A. Wells shows how the story of Jesus developed through telling and re-telling, from an early version in the letters of Paul (who does not mention Jesus in connection with any specific time or place) to the more elaborate and detailed picture later presented in the gospels.

"G.A. Wells knows thoroughly the works of those scholars who, like himself, have devoted much of their lives to asking, 'Who is Jesus Christ?'. In The Jesus Legend, he once again exemplifies first-rate historical investigation and praiseworthy biblical scholarship. I know of no author who has shed more light on the question of how Christianity came into being". -- J.E. Barnhart University of North Texas

G. A. Wells
Literature & Fiction
Open Court
3.5
Was Jesus a historical figure, or are the accounts in the New Testament pure myth? In THE JESUS MYTH, Professor G.A. Wells argues that the Jesus portrayed in the gospels-an itinerant preacher, a worker of miracles, born of a virgin, and executed under Pilate-did not exist. He contends that the descriptions in the four canonical gospels not only contradict each other, but are also not in harmony with the earliest Christian documents or the earliest non-Christian testimony to the existence of Jesus.

THE JESUS MYTH contains a new investigation of the historicity of the gospel miracles, with a special emphasis on exorcisms, a provocative discussion of the New Testament as an ethical guide, and replies to the arguments of apologists C.S. Lewis and Leslie Weatherhead. Christian scholar Roderick Tyler provides an afterword.

George Albert Wells
Nonfiction
Open Court
2.5
Can We Trust the New Testament? questions the historical accuracy of widely held views of early Christianity. In this book radical Bible scholar G. A. Wells examines Biblical accounts of the lives of the apostles Peter and Paul and presents evidence that the events described in the New Testament were written over time to support the agendas of the Christian church. He embarks on a close analysis of the Book of Acts, questioning its authorship and casting doubt on the events it and the gospels describe.

George Albert Wells
Nonfiction
Open Court Publishing Company
4.0 (1 voti)
Sophisticated liberal Christians like to deride the crudities of Fundamentalism, but are their own positions any more defensible? Wells begins with the fundamentalists, taking as his chief example the sect of Jehovah's Witnesses. He shows how they twist biblical texts, ignoring the historical background of the Bible and the numerous contradictions it contains. Fundamentalism lives on ignorance of modern scriptural scholarship. Professor Wells summarizes the achievements of the pioneers in this area, W.M.L. de Wette and David Friedrich Strauss. In a striking parallel with some biblical stories, Wells examines the legend of William Tell, showing how it came to be accepted as history. Following a general survey of the liberal defense, the author gives an account of the ideas of influential modern apologists like Tillich, Collingwood, Bonhoeffer and Julian Huxley, with a merciless dissection of the apologetic use made of the confusions of German metaphysics. Professor Wells also discusses whether morality requires a religious sanction, whether atheism is reasonable and how religion manages to survive criticism.

Gérard Mordillat
General AAS
Seuil

Gérard Mordillat, Jérôme Prieur
Histoire et Actualité
Seuil
3.0 (2 voti)
Ce livre porte un regard nouveau et tout à fait différent sur le christianisme.
Habitué, depuis notre plus jeune âge, à une vision monolithique de l'histoire du christianisme, Mordillat et Prieur analysent en détail les dissensions internes qui ont séparé les différents courants judéo-chrétiens après la mort de Jésus. Ce livre s'attache surtout à la personnalité controversée de Paul de Tarse, qui peut néanmoins être considéré comme le vrai fondateur du christianisme actuel. Catholiques orthodoxes, s'abstenir !

Gerd Ludemann
Religion & Spirituality
T. & T. Clark Publishers
5.0
This is a critical account of the state-of-the-art of scholarship in earliest Christianity, and where and how it should move forward. It offers an authoritative account of contremporary scholarship and evaluates the work of all major scholars in the field, from Britain, America and around the world, as well as a critical analysis of all the published writings in Early Christianity over the last 25 years of the 20th century. The author evaluates all the contributions and defines the most significant areas for future research.

Geza Vermes
Religion & Spirituality
Penguin Books Ltd
3.5
The Changing Faces of Jesus is a reflection on the ways that translations of Scripture have transformed believers' understandings of Jesus. Author Geza Vermes, a biblical scholar perhaps best known for his English translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, reviews the varying portraits of Jesus in Scripture, particularly focusing on the letters of Paul and the Gospel of John. The author contends that, "by the end of the first century Christianity had lost sight of the real Jesus and of the original meaning of his message." The real Jesus, a "religious man with an irresistible charismatic charm," was replaced by "Jesus the Christ, the transcendent object of the Christian religion." Vermes avoids the polemic tone often adopted by scholars who make similar arguments. Here is an example of the modest style in which this author makes his momentous claims:As a historian I consider Jesus, the primitive church and the New Testament as part and parcel of first-century Judaism and seek to read them as such rather than through the eyes of a theologian who may often be conditioned, and subconsciously influenced, by two millennia of Christian belief and church directives. This tone will help readers--even those predisposed to disagree with Vermes--to understand his argument that religious belief has skewed understanding of the central figure of the Christian religion. --Michael Joseph Gross

Geza Vermes
Religion & Spirituality
Penguin Books Ltd
4.5
In his new book distinguished Jesus scholar Geza Vermes explains the true story behind The Passion of Christ and the recent, highly controversial, film. Vital reading for anyone wanting to know the truth behind the hyperbole Vermes's book is an intelligent and fascinating breakdown of the evidence of the Trial of Jesus and an authentic version of Stations of the Cross. A general introduction dealing with the Jewish court system, the Romen legal procedure and parallel court cases aims to provide a context to The Passion and a greater understanding of Biblical society. Written by the greatest Jesus scholar of his generation this will be required reading for anyone wanting to know the truth.

Giuseppe Flavio

Mondadori

Giuseppe Flavio

Mondadori

La guerra giudaica, scritto prima in aramaico poi in greco, narra uno degli eventi più drammatici della storia universale, ambientato in quegli stessi luoghi in cui pochi decenni prima aveva predicato Gesù Cristo. La prima parte del libro è dedicata ai delitti che funestarono la famiglia di Erode. Ma il cuore dell'opera è la lotta del piccolo popolo ebreo contro le legioni di Vespasiano e di Tito: esempi di coraggio disperato, di straordinaria astuzia guerriera e di folle fanatismo rivoluzionario si susseguono davanti ai nostri occhi, fino al momento in cui il Tempio, simbolo della tradizione ebraica, viene avvolto dalle fiamme di un incendio inestinguibile. Un'appendice al testo propone i frammenti di un'antica versione russa della Guerra giudaica, dove appare la figura di Gesù Cristo.

Giustino (san)

Paoline Editoriale Libri

Scritto verso la metà del II secolo, questo testo di S. Giustino, è il primo diretto confronto fra cristianesimo e filosofia e tra cristianesimo e giudaismo. Il terreno di confronto è costituito dall'Antico Testamento, ma il vero tema dello scontro è Cristo. S. Giustino tenta di interpretare alla luce di Cristo tutta la vicenda umana, situando nel mistero cristiano sia la sapienza pagana sia la tradizione religiosa giudaica, giungendo così ad affermare che il cristianesimo è l'unica vera filosofia e l'unico vero Israele, da sempre.

Giustino (san)

Paoline Editoriale Libri

Vissuto in un'epoca di grandi persecuzioni contro la prima comunità cristiana, il filosofo Giustino con le due Apologie contesta le motivazioni con cui gli imperatori e il Senato romano giustificavano la persecuzione dei cristiani. Il contesto storico in cui Giustino scriveva non è così diverso dalla frammentazione culturale e religiosa che la nostra epoca registra; per questo il libro risulta attuale anche oggi e di grande interesse per chi desidera approfondire i temi della fede attraverso un linguaggio, apparentemente lontano dalla nostra sensibilità, ma di grande forza e spessore contenutistico e letterario.

Hector Avalos
Religion & Spirituality
Prometheus Books
4.5
In this radical critique of his own academic specialty, biblical scholar Hector Avalos calls for an end to biblical studies as we know them. He outlines two main arguments for this surprising conclusion. First, academic biblical scholarship has clearly succeeded in showing that the ancient civilization that produced the Bible held beliefs about the origin, nature, and purpose of the world and humanity that are fundamentally opposed to the views of modern society. The Bible is thus largely irrelevant to the needs and concerns of contemporary human beings. Second, Avalos criticizes his colleagues for applying a variety of flawed and specious techniques aimed at maintaining the illusion that the Bible is still relevant in today's world. In effect, he accuses his profession of being more concerned about its self-preservation than about giving an honest account of its own findings to the general public and faith communities.

Dividing his study into two parts, Avalos first examines the principal subdisciplines of biblical studies (textual criticism, archaeology, historical criticism, literary criticism, biblical theology, and translations) in order to show how these fields are still influenced by religiously motivated agendas despite claims to independence from religious premises. In the second part, he focuses on the infrastructure that supports academic biblical studies to maintain the value of the profession and the Bible. This infrastructure includes academia (public and private universities and colleges), churches, the media-publishing complex, and professional organizations such as the Society of Biblical Literature. In a controversial conclusion, Avalos argues that our world is best served by leaving the Bible as a relic of an ancient civilization instead of the "living" document most religionist scholars believe it should be. He urges his colleagues to concentrate on educating the broader society to recognize the irrelevance and even violent effects of the Bible in modern life.

Hyam MacCoby
Religion & Spirituality
Scm Press
3.5
The New Testament appears to describe Jesus as a strong opponent of the Pharisees. This book however argues that the appearance is deceptive, being due to late additions to the New Testament, which, however, contains strong traces of an earlier pro-Pharisee attitude, for example, the portrayal of Gamaliel.

Jesus, the book argues, was not only friendly to the Pharisees, but was actually a member of their movement. Evidence is brought from the rabbinic writings to show a strong affinity between Jesus and the Pharisees. The Talmud even retains a reminiscence of Jesus as a rabbinic figure. The argument that the rabbinic writings are too late to be valid is combated. The book puts forward many new insights into New Testament problems: for example, why did Jesus' brother, not Peter become the leader of the Jerusalem Church? What was the motive for the denigration of the Pharisees? What was Jesus' attitude towards the temple? Did Jesus flout the Jewish ritual purity laws? Do the Gospels contain a polemic against the Jerusalem Church? Did Jesus' claim to be the Messiah (a political title) constitute a threat to the Roman Occupation, rather than to the Jewish religion? Was the High Priest a henchman and appointee of Rome, despised by the Pharisees and the Jewish people?

Ireneo di Lione (sant')

Jaca Book

Israel Finkelstein Neil Asher Silberman
History
Free Press
4.0
The exciting field of biblical archaeology has revolutionized our understanding of the Bible - and no one has done more to popularise this vast store of knowledge than Israel Finkelstein and Neil Silberman, who revealed what we now know about when and why the Bible was first written in "The Bible Unearthed". Now, with "David and Solomon", they do nothing less than help us to understand the sacred kings and founding fathers of western civilization. David and his son Solomon are famous in the Bible for their warrior prowess, legendary loves, wisdom, poetry, conquests, and ambitious building programmes. Yet thanks to archaeology's astonishing finds, we now know that most of these stories are myths. Finkelstein and Silberman show us that the historical David was a bandit leader in a tiny back-water called Jerusalem, and how - through wars, conquests and epic tragedies like the exile of the Jews in the centuries before Christ and the later Roman conquest - David and his successor were reshaped into mighty kings and even messiahs, symbols of hope to Jews and Christians alike in times of strife and despair and models for the great kings of Europe. A landmark work of research and lucid scholarship by two brilliant luminaries, "David and Solomon" recasts the very genesis of western history in a whole new light.

James M. Robinson
Religion & Spirituality
HarperCollins Publishers
5.0

Jean Meslier
All Deals
Coda