A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jesus was an excellent introduction to historical Jesus studies and, in my opinion, did a great job at introducing historical Jesus studies to someone who has/had followed Christianity throughout his or her life. Growing up with very Christian parents, it was not a common occurrence to speak of Jesus outside of his role as a Christian figure. While the thought that Jesus was just an over-glorified public speaker was not grounds for punishment, it was most definitely not a pleasant dinner time conversation in my household. With my upbringing, I can see how Christians can take the study of historical Jesus to be offensive and anger inducing. As mentioned in the assignment, C.S. Lewis’s passage in The Screwtape Letters about how the study of historical Jesus should be encouraged to convince Christians to question and even renounce their faith is somewhat understandable. The way Fisk managed to write the book in a way to introduce the topic of historical Jesus studies while still maintaining the faith aspect of a religious historian was very well executed. Fisk managed to study Jesus as a person while still being able to believe in him as Jesus Christ and not renounce his faith altogether.
It was really interesting to me to read about how the Gospel writers portrayed Jesus differently, even though they were written within a relatively small time frame. For example, comparing stories from Mark to those in Luke and noticing the differences and the changes Luke made to Mark’s story in order to cover up or improve the status of Jesus was fascinating. This also makes trying to figure out who Jesus really was an extremely difficult, if not impossible task. The variations provide some insight into who he was and what it was that he did, but historians can only use this insight to determine probabilities rather than cold hard facts.
One of the most significant points I took from this book is the fact that everyone looks at Jesus in a different light. A person’s background, culture, ideologies, and so much more will influence what he or she sees in Jesus. No matter how much one may try to negate these perceptions, they will always factor in to how one looks at Jesus. As I said in an earlier entry, people will take what they want to understand from religious texts and use them as they choose. Whether it is historically accurate or not may not even come to mind when they are reading the Gospels. However, when one does read the Gospels and recognizes some of the history behind them, it makes the stories that much more intriguing and thought-provoking.
It was really interesting to me to read about how the Gospel writers portrayed Jesus differently, even though they were written within a relatively small time frame. For example, comparing stories from Mark to those in Luke and noticing the differences and the changes Luke made to Mark’s story in order to cover up or improve the status of Jesus was fascinating. This also makes trying to figure out who Jesus really was an extremely difficult, if not impossible task. The variations provide some insight into who he was and what it was that he did, but historians can only use this insight to determine probabilities rather than cold hard facts.
One of the most significant points I took from this book is the fact that everyone looks at Jesus in a different light. A person’s background, culture, ideologies, and so much more will influence what he or she sees in Jesus. No matter how much one may try to negate these perceptions, they will always factor in to how one looks at Jesus. As I said in an earlier entry, people will take what they want to understand from religious texts and use them as they choose. Whether it is historically accurate or not may not even come to mind when they are reading the Gospels. However, when one does read the Gospels and recognizes some of the history behind them, it makes the stories that much more intriguing and thought-provoking.
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