Although the image of Jesus Christ provides a rock-solid foundation for the spiritual life of hundreds of millions of people in the world, religious-studies historians are discovering that pinning down an accurate picture of what kind of man Christ was when he was alive is nearly impossible.
Despite the scarcity of reliable sources about Christ from the period, a slew of books, articles and television shows have attempted to recreate the historical Jesus. Although these different views have been called both accurate and heretical, all have fanned the flames in the ongoing debate regarding who Jesus really was as a person.
One of the leading scholars in the field, John Crossan, will be giving a lecture on the subject at 7:30 p.m. today in Room 175 Knight Law Center. The lecture is free and open to the public.
A professor emeritus with the DePaul University religious studies department, Crossan is the author of 18 books that explore Jesus’ life and the society in which he lived. Four of the books have been best sellers.
Daniel Falk, assistant professor of religious studies at the University, helped arrange Crossan’s visit to the University and has explored the issue himself.
He said there is no certainty regarding who Jesus was because he did not leave any written records and no one outside of the early Christian faith wrote anything of substance about him.
“That gives us very little to go on, and for a historian, that makes it very problematic,” he said.
Falk said it would be hard to simply apply what is known of Jesus’ culture because he was probably different from the norm.
“He was from a different culture, and he was somewhat counter-culture in his own culture,” he said.
But Falk said finding the real Jesus has always been an intriguing scholarly pursuit because countless generations of Christians have applied their own cultural characteristics to the image of him. This has clouded the issue and probably left an image of Jesus in many people’s minds that likely doesn’t correspond with reality, he said.
This reality, however, is open to question because of the dearth of concrete information, and hence the debate over the historical Jesus, Falk said.
He said some researchers have been harshly criticized for their work in finding the true historical Christ.
“On religious grounds, people get upset when you say Jesus didn’t say something from the scripture,” Falk said.
He said that Crossan has been applauded in scholarly circles because of his research methods. While conservative Christian scholars often criticize his conclusions, Falk said they admit Crossan’s methods do have merit.
Falk said Crossan’s work is based on gospels by the apostles Thomas and Peter that were excluded from the New Testament. The works are different from the other gospels in that they are non-apocalyptic or based on the principle that Christ will not necessarily usher in a new era.
Although a Christian himself, Falk was not troubled by Crossan’s work.
“It doesn’t offend me or trouble me,” he said. “It’s a piece of scholarship.”
Falk will be discussing the issue himself while teaching the class “Jesus and the Gospels” next term.
Steve Ellisen, director of Campus Crusade for Christ, said he supports historical research on Jesus as long as it does not start on a basis of rejecting miracles. He said several historians do not believe in the possibility of miracles, so they research Christ without the context of miracles.
Yet Ellisen said if researchers do take into account the possibility of miracles, he strongly supports researching who Christ was.
“I think that understanding the historic Jesus and who he was is an extremely important endeavor,” he said.
But Ellisen said he was deeply offended by people who attempted to create a scandalous image of Christ for profit.
Andrew Goble, religious studies professor and department head, said even though he isn’t an expert in the field of Christian research, he has appreciated the work done by people like Crossan.
He said that of the major religions, only Christianity has an ongoing debate about the historical truth of one of its leading figures.
“Outside of Christianity, I’m not generally aware of this type of debates over founding figures,” he said.