ISSN: 1522-5658

Gregory W. Dawes (ed.). The Historical Jesus Quest. Landmarks in the Search for the Jesus of History. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1999. Pp. xiv + 322. $24.95 (Paper).

[1] Since the last decade of the twentieth century the Historical Jesus has captured the interest and imagination of scholars and, thanks to the media hype and advertising blitz by publishers surrounding their research, of the public as well. The names of Robert Funk and the Jesus Seminar, Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, John Meier, E. P. Sanders, N. T. Wright are by now familiar to many. Few outside academia, however, realize that the historical questions pursued by these scholars were first posed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; furthermore, that the answers given at that time have influenced the shape of the current debate. The early pioneers are often referred to by those participating in the current "Third Quest," and their contributions are summarized in a work such as Mark Allan Powell's recent Jesus as A Figure in History. But non-specialist readers, even when familiar with the names of Reimarus, Strauss, Weiss, Wrede, Schweitzer, have had little access to their works.

[2] Gregory Dawes rectifies the situation with this anthology of extracts from the pioneers whose writings represent landmarks in what became the quest for the historical Jesus. The volume consists of an introduction, eight chapters spanning the period from Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694-1768) to Ernst Käsemann (1906-98), and a general index. The Introduction presents the two conditions necessary for the emergence of the historical Jesus quest, namely, the undermining of the authority of biblical writings and the development of a sense of history, hence, its title "The Divorce Between History and Faith." The pertinent excerpts are from Benedict Spinoza's Tractatus Theologica-Politicus and Ernst Troeltsch's "Historical and Dogmatic Method in Theology."

[3] In each of the eight chapters that follow, the contribution and/or emphasis of the writer(s) addressed therein is signaled by the chapter title. Thus, for example, chapter 1, which features an extract from Hermann Samuel Reimarus' Wolfenbüttel Fragments, is entitled "The Gospels as Fraud." Similarly, "History and Myth" is the title of chapter 2, which treats the contribution of David Friedrich Strauss' The Life of Jesus Critically Examined. The chapter titles, authors, and extracts in the remaining chapters are as follows: chapter 3, "Consistent Scepticism": William Wrede, The Messianic Secret; chapter 4, "The Kingdom of God": Albrecht Ritschl, Instruction in the Christian Religion and Johannes Weiss, Jesus' Proclamation of the Kingdom of God; chapter 5, "Consistent Eschatology": Albert Schweitzer, The Mystery of the Kingdom of God and My Life and Thought; chapter 6, "Rejection of the Quest": Martin Kähler, The So-Called Historical Jesus and the Historic, Biblical Christ; chapter 7, "The Dialectical Theology": Rudolf Bultmann, "Liberal Theology and the Latest Theological Movement" and Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics; chapter 8, "Re-Opening the Quest": Ernst Käsemann, "The Problem of the Historical Jesus." The format of each chapter is uniform: first, an introduction that includes a brief biographical sketch of the author(s) whose thought is featured in the chapter, followed by comments that set each work in context; then, the extract itself. The introductions are indented to distinguish them from the extracts.

[4] Because extracts easily mislead or distort a writer's thought, anthologies do not always make for truly informative reading. That Dawes manages to do justice to each writer is due in large part to careful selection of extracts. Instead of brief pieces that do little more than reveal the writer's thesis, he provides selections lengthy enough to acquaint the reader with the supporting arguments. Thus, although the bulk of the book is comprised of the extracts themselves, Dawes' own contribution is considerable. His summaries of the authors' central arguments and of their larger works are excellent, and the remarks by which he situates each reading in its historical context and in the context of the historical Jesus quest as a whole are admirably incisive. The reader is informed, for example, that Spinoza's treatment of the authority of the Bible must be understood in relation to his plea for freedom from any form of religious domination in the aftermath of the wars of religion that had wracked Europe in the early seventeenth century.

[5] Those familiar with the early quest might object to the omission of other significant figures, e.g. Ferdinand Christian Bauer who, as the teacher of David Friedrich Strauss, was a major influence on him. Also noticeably absent is Ernst Renan, whose life of Jesus was the most widely read in his day. These, however, are omissions, not oversights, Dawes admitting that an anthology "is, of necessity, an exercise in exclusion" (ix); and they hardly detract from the work's value. Even without the sixty plus pages that inclusion of two more figures would require, it does what no other book on the Historical Jesus does.

[6] By providing first-hand exposure to the seminal works of some of the pioneering giants of biblical criticism and the historical Jesus quest, this volume fills a gap in the existing literature. Anyone interested in Historical Jesus research, and more particularly, in its history, but with little time to read and/or limited access to the works in their entirety, will profit greatly from this book. It can be highly recommended for use in courses on the Historical Jesus at the upper-division undergraduate and the graduate levels. Because it affords insight into the current debate about the value of historical critical research for faith and theology, it is a must-read for graduate students in biblical studies and in theology.

Susan A. Calef
Creighton University