The Peril of Modernizing Jesus

The Peril of Modernizing Jesus

As the dean of Luke-Acts studies in America, Henry J. Cadbury also wrote ground-breaking treatments of Jesus and early Christianity. In 'The Peril of Modernizing Jesus' Cadbury helps us consider the Jesus of his day rather than the Jesus of our making. Subjects covered in this book include the following: - anachronism in thinking about Jesus - the cause and cure of modernism - the Jewishness of the Gospels - Jesus and the mentality of our age - limitations of Jesus's social teachings - purpose, aim, and motive in Jesus - the religion of Jesus ""Henry Cadbury was too well versed in the Greek Classics to be charmed by the scholarly fads of his time. His defense of honest-to-God plain readings still gives us a New Testament that is sometimes pleasing and sometimes troublesome -- as it should be."" Krister Stendahl, Harvard Divinity School ""The reprinting of Henry Cadbury's classic provides a breath of fresh air in this timely reminder that what we can know about the historical Jesus is both limited and limitless, neither prescriptive nor merely descriptive."" Glenna S. Jackson, Otterbein College ""Cadbury challenges the view that virtually nothing can be known of the Jesus of history, punctuating the Jesus-studies landscape between the 'No Quest' sealed by Schweitzer and the 'New Quest' inaugurated by Bornkamm. . . . On the other hand, Cadbury also challenges our tendencies to sketch a portrait of Jesus created in our image as modernists. . . . This book is a must-read for all followers of Jesus studies -- modern and post-modern alike!"" Paul N. Anderson, George Fox University Henry J. Cadbury (1883-1974) stands as one of the premier American biblical scholars of the twentieth century. He held the Hollis Chair at Harvard for twenty years and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947 on behalf of the American Friends Service Committee. Author of seven books and over 160 essays on biblical subjects, Cadbury's work on Luke-Acts, Jesus, and interpretive issues speaks with a timeless ring of authority.