Overall this was interesting book for me. It is totally different from what I have ever read before, but I think it was a good experience for me. For one, it introduced to me to this whole idea of the historical Jesus that I had never thought of. I have always viewed Jesus in a spiritual sense and have always assumed the things I read in the gospels to be true as opposed to breaking down the facts and the man he really was. Most importantly, this book introduced to me a lot of new ideas, perceptions controversies, questions, and arguments about Jesus.
I agree with Dr. Reis in the sense that researching the historical Jesus can be a challenging task. When I first began reading the book, I took it as challenging my faith, but after going through it, I realized that some aspects of the historical Jesus search can affirm one’s faith. However, at the same time I believe some of the historical Jesus research refuses some of the things Jesus did. Take for example the miracle stories of Jesus. Since one is looking for facts in this research, they find it hard to believe that Jesus actually healed the blind, fed five thousand, raised people from the dead etc. I think historical Jesus researchers read too much into this and try to find other alternative explanations for these stories. This is not the purpose of the gospels though. They state what happened and expect you to believe that it happened, not try to explain the unexplainable.
In this sense I agree with C.S. Lewis’ view to a degree. Not always, but I feel like searching for the historical Jesus can be degrading to one’s faith. To find the historical Jesus, we use the gospels. Sometimes people use what it is found in the gospels to create a new account of Jesus and create things that are not found in the Bible. These things are not necessarily fact, rather what someone has created based on the image of Jesus in the gospels. Sometimes there simply is no evidence for things Jesus did, and this bothers some people. I think it is up to reader whether to believe what the gospels say or look into them further to make their own Jesus. Overall though, this book gave me a great introduction to the idea, problems, and relevance of the historical Jesus.
I agree with Dr. Reis in the sense that researching the historical Jesus can be a challenging task. When I first began reading the book, I took it as challenging my faith, but after going through it, I realized that some aspects of the historical Jesus search can affirm one’s faith. However, at the same time I believe some of the historical Jesus research refuses some of the things Jesus did. Take for example the miracle stories of Jesus. Since one is looking for facts in this research, they find it hard to believe that Jesus actually healed the blind, fed five thousand, raised people from the dead etc. I think historical Jesus researchers read too much into this and try to find other alternative explanations for these stories. This is not the purpose of the gospels though. They state what happened and expect you to believe that it happened, not try to explain the unexplainable.
In this sense I agree with C.S. Lewis’ view to a degree. Not always, but I feel like searching for the historical Jesus can be degrading to one’s faith. To find the historical Jesus, we use the gospels. Sometimes people use what it is found in the gospels to create a new account of Jesus and create things that are not found in the Bible. These things are not necessarily fact, rather what someone has created based on the image of Jesus in the gospels. Sometimes there simply is no evidence for things Jesus did, and this bothers some people. I think it is up to reader whether to believe what the gospels say or look into them further to make their own Jesus. Overall though, this book gave me a great introduction to the idea, problems, and relevance of the historical Jesus.
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