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Cutting Jesus Down to Size: What Higher Criticism Has Achieved and Where It Leaves Christianity

Cutting Jesus Down to Size: What Higher Criticism Has Achieved and Where It Leaves Christianity
By George Albert Wells

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In this provocative book, noted scholar G. A. Wells tells the story of Higher Criticism: the close study of the scriptures that reveals difficulties and discrepancies. Wells traces the discipline’s German beginnings, exploring the problems in the New Testament that prompted scholars to revise traditional theories of the scriptures’ origins. Wells then traces the development and reception of these views from the 18th century to today. Drawing on current biblical scholarship, Wells explains how the Jesus of Paul’s epistles differs radically from later versions and addresses conservative Christians’ attempts to reconcile them. He carefully analyzes what the New Testament says about miracles, the Virgin Birth, the Nativity, Jesus’ conflicting genealogies, the Resurrection, the post-Resurrection appearances, and the failed prophecies of imminent apocalypse. Wells persuasively profiles the New Testament as a fascinating but flawed collection of incompatible viewpoints, revealing Jesus as a shifting, ambiguous, legendary figure who reflected the evolving teachings of a fragmented, emotion-based cultic movement.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #267214 in Books
  • Published on: 2009-07-07
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 384 pages

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Customer Reviews

A Fantastic Survey of Higher Critical Studies!5
All I can say about this book is that is is a thorough and meticulous survey of higher critical scholarship since it's onset. As a subject whose discoveries and propositions have been mostly ignored by mainstream NT studies, seeing it's accumulated accomplishments in one volume like this is very powerful. It seems to me that it shows how a very rigorous subset of academics can turn an entire field on its head with solid logic and persuasive analysis without anyone ever knowing it...or at least very few knowing it. I highly recommend this book for anyone stuck in the Ehrman/Crossan range of mainstream consensus interpretations as I used to be. This book opens up so many fascinating and plausible alternative possibilties concerning the interpretation and evaluation of NT accounts of Jesus and their origins. For someone who, deep-down, is emotionally dependent on his or her belief in the Jesus that they learned about in church, then this book is a waste of time because you will find fallacious reasons to dismiss it, so as to retain your cozy paradigm. But for everyone else with any interest at all in historical Jesus research or New Testament Studies in general, this book is a gold mine that will probably change your whole point of view. A Most Excellent Volume!!

An excellent scholarly presentation5
CUTTING JESUS DOWN TO SIZE: WHAT HIGHER CRITICISM HAS ACHIEVED AND WHERE IT LEAVES CHRISTIANITY comes from a critic who explains the nature and reasoning of 'higher critics', showing how conclusions are honed and the entire process of the higher criticism movement. College-level collections strong in both religion and scholarly analysis will find this an excellent scholarly presentation.