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The Human Christ - The Search for the Historical Jesus

THE HUMAN CHRIST: The search for the historical Jesus
By Charlotte Allen
Lion. 382 pages. £20.00
ISBN 0 7459 4070 6

Lion has gained a reputation in publishing lavishly illustrated, accessible reference books aimed at a very broad readership. This volume does not fit with that pattern, but represents a very useful contribution to understanding the history of Christian thought.
It charts 2,000 years of scholarship in its dogged attempt to establish the historical identity of Jesus. Written in an engaging journalistic style, the author brings alive the personalities and politics of Western academia. In addition to the speculations of academics and philosophers, there is discussion of the portrayal of Jesus in film and novel.
The introduction cites the famous remark of George Tyrell who claimed that the Jesus discovered by liberal historical scholarship was 'the reflection of a liberal Protestant face, seen at the bottom of a deep well'. The polemical point of the book is that much of the attempt to get behind the Gospels in order to describe the 'real' Jesus is simply the attempt by scholars to create a Jesus in their own image and with their own political convictions. This is an important point with a weight of evidence behind it. Allen demonstrates the hidden assumptions, prejudice and bias of much historical scholarship.
The account charts the changing image of Jesus from the New Testament, through the Reformation, the rise of liberalism and into the contemporary world. For most of this period, the attempt to rewrite the Gospels in the interests of some passing fashion was carried out in the name of historical studies. In the closing sections, Allen shows how more recently the attempt to rewrite the Gospels does not always even pay lip service to historical studies. One contemporary writer describes Jesus as a 'feminist' and is quite honest that she is offering a 'new 'imagining' of Christian origins' (p.284). In contrast to the uncertainties of these quests for the historical Jesus, Allen affirms the reliability of the Gospels themselves as historical sources. Indeed, recent discoveries have further confirmed the accuracy of the Gospels' picture of the Jewish world in the 1st century.
Unfortunately, Allen's scepticism regarding Biblical theology is simply pushed too far to be credible. There have been valuable insights gained from the new historical consciousness from the Reformation which have not simply reflected historians prejudices. Indeed, one implication of Allen's argument is that the Reformation itself gave rise to historical criticism with its attendant evils of deism, liberalism and scepticism. A more favourable story of the rise of historical scholarship could be told.

Chris Sinkinson