The Flesh Was Made Word: A Metahistorical Critique of the Contemporary Quest of the Historical Jesus (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781906055967)

The 'historical Jesus' still remains elusive. Who was Jesus? What really happened? How can we know for sure? The latest quest for the truth about him comes at a time marked by radical uncertainty and postmodern scepticism about master narratives, along with a loss of confidence in the traditional methods of historical analysis. In this context, Susan Lochrie Graham approaches the old debates from an entirely new direction. Armed with a 'metahistorical' approach adapted from the work of Hayden White, the philosopher of history, she reads the work of four representative historical Jesus writers: John P. Meier, N.T. Wright, Elisabeth Sch ssler Fiorenza and John Dominic Crossan. The analysis brings to light the deep literary structures of their portraits, showing the differing plots and rhetorical concepts that shape them, and the types of argument that are deployed by each writer. This ground-breaking critical investigation exposes the theological and cultural meanings embedded in all historical Jesus writing, showing how narrative forms function ideologically. It concludes with fresh answers to questions both about the methods we use and about the social implications of the contemporary quest of the historical Jesus, and proposes different directions for future research.

Author: Susan Lochrie Graham
ISBN-10: 1906055963
ISBN-13: 9781906055967
Publisher: Sheffield Phoenix Press Ltd
Language: English
Published: 11/16/2010
Pages: 208
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.03lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.50d