A Diverse Jesus

Interesting article in the Christian Century (Nov. 4, 2008) about a new research group that was formed in 2003 under the sponsorship of the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, NJ. It's called the Identity of Jesus Project. They have just published a book, Seeking the Identity of Jesus. Another group, the Jesus Seminar, has been around for years. The Seminar is very liberal. This new group is more modest in its findings. Here are some of its conclusions:

1. Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew.

2. The identity of Jesus is reliably attested and known in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

3. The entirety of the canonical witness is indispensable to a faithful rendering of the figure of Jesus.

4. In order to understand the identity of Jesus rightly, the church must constantly engage in the practice of deep, sustained reading of the texts.

5. To come to grips with the identity of Jesus, we must know him as he is presented to us through the medium of narrative.

6. The trajectory begun within the NT of interpreting Jesus' identity in and for the church has continued through Christian history.

7. The identity of Jesus is something that must be learned through long-term discipline.

On that last point St. Paul says: "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death." (Phil. 3.10)

From the article: "Some Christians may fear that an emphasis on the wealth and diversity of traditional descriptions of Jesus compromises the gospel. Yet given the diversity of biblical witnesses to Jesus, orthodoxy actually demands that we speak about Jesus in more than one way."

I often think about the fact that if Biblical theology were simple, or meant to be simple, we would have only one Gospel (e.g., Matthew or Mark). But we have four Gospels. There is a diversity of point of view and presentation. 


To over-simplify the Biblical message is to be unfaithful to the Bible itself.