Honest to Jesus: Jesus for a New Millennium

Christian Century, March 19, 1997 by William Richard Stegner

By Robert W. Funk. HarperCollins, 342 pp., $24.00.

Of making Jesus seminar books there is no end." Robert Funk, the seminar's founder, has added his volume to the list, and in some ways his is the best book written by these new questers. For the uninitiated it introduces the kind of information shared by most New Testament scholars. It also contains the best treatment of the parables found anywhere.

In addition to introducing the tools of the trade, Funk helps readers understand the work and approach of the seminar. He sketches his picture of the Jesus behind the Gospels and sets forth in starkest terms the seminar's program--the destruction of orthodox Christianity, along with its creeds and faith.

The book opens with a remarkably candid account of Funk's personal pilgrimage. Funk traces his "professional migrations" from his days as a teenage evangelist studying at a Tennessee Bible college through 35 years in the classroom to his founding of the Westar Institute and its project, the Jesus Seminar. His goal is seeking "the historical truth at all costs."

Funk writes well. In a beautiful passage he describes the significance of Jesus for today: "In his authentic parables and aphorisms, Jesus provides a glimpse into another reality, one that lies beyond the present conceptual horizons. His words and deeds open onto that reality. His vision, in my view, is worth exploring."

The more one reads about this third quest for the historical Jesus, the more one recalls the first. At the end of the 19th century, liberal German Protestant theologians initiated the first quest with slogans like the following: Away with the Christ of dogma! Away with the supernatural Jesus of miracles and last judgments! Back to the simple Jesus of history, our great human teacher, whose sublime ethics lead to the brotherhood of man under the Fatherhood of God. While the modern questers want nothing of Jesus as "a moralist," their slogans, except for the sexist terms, could be the same.

How does one evaluate this new quest? First, the Seminar does not represent the mainstream of contemporary critical scholarship. Despite all the publicity, the more radical conclusions have not persuaded mainstream scholars.

Second, biblical scholarship is constantly correcting itself. The "assured results" (read: "the historical truths") of one generation are challenged and sometimes refuted by a succeeding generation. For example, Rudolf Bultmann had scarcely buried the first quest when his own disciples initiated the second quest.

Third, the phrase "the historical truth" becomes quite wobbly in actual practice. Historical research is not a scientific experiment or a sociological survey of live participants. If one removes the so-called theological accretions from the Gospels, the database of authentic Jesus parables and sayings becomes small indeed. The scholars then add a few sayings from the noncanonical gospels. Still, sayings do not exist in a vacuum. Scholars must create a "model" to explain how a first-century Eastern Mediterranean culture functioned and was stratified into classes. Based on a small list of authentic sayings, controversial models and the biases of the interpreters, "the historical truth" turns out to be composed of a large dose of clever guess-work.

A final observation: critics of the first quest commented that the historical Jesus turned out to be very much like a liberal, 19th-century German gentleman. Is it strange that the Jesus served up by this search turns out to be very like a modern, disaffected academic? Amidst the boring flatlands of postmodernist times, a Jesus who can provide only "a glimpse into another reality" is not much help.

Reviewed by William Richard Stegner, professor of New Testament (retired) at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois.