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Introduction.

As our culture continues its relentless degeneration into secularism and paganism, many of us grapple for the optimum means of both promoting and defending Christianity. One could say that the world is fast becoming as barbaric as that of the first Christians. The latter concentrated on the person of Jesus Christ: His Life Death and Resurrection. This was most effective in communicating Christianity to the outside world. Perhaps we should follow the example of the first Christians.

Many Christians of today diligently practice their faith but are vulnerable to secularisation because of a lack of knowledge of the historical reality of Jesus.

It is hoped that this book will be widely promoted to remedy this situation.



Jesus, Man or Myth?

By Carsten Peter Thiede

A Lion Book, Oxford, 2005

www.lionhudson.com/

Price in UK £6.99 ISBN 0 7459 5147 3

Ordering in UK: Maston Book Services. Tel 01235 465500

Ordering outside UK. Please email: enquiries@lionhudson.com


Review by Douglas Lancashire

In this slender (158 page) book, Professor Thiede has sought to present to the serious reader, anxious to make his or her way through the blizzard of differing views and judgements currently in circulation regarding the person of Jesus and the origins of Christianity, with a convincing account of the reality of the man, and of the trustworthiness of the sources upon which we have to depend for our primary information.

Employing all his profound scholarship, and drawing on his long experience as an exponent of New Testament history and expert in the fields of Papyrology and Archaeology, Professor Thiede leads the reader through such issues as the historical existence of Jesus; his place in Jewish tradition; his death and resurrection, and his self-evaluation, while, at the same time, pointing to the absurdities of the kind of pseudo-historical writing exemplified in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and the highly questionable scholarship of Jesus scholars who have attached themselves in recent times to the so-called ‘Jesus Seminar’.

Moving deftly through his field, yet not subjecting the layman to the great quantities of footnotes that would normally accompany such a study, Thiede applies all the rigour of a scientifically-minded scholar to the examination of internal and external evidence available to him to present the reader with a convincing defence of his source materials and of the reliability of the account they give of the life and times of Jesus.

This is a book which every Christian should read to deepen his or her understanding of the Christian scriptures, and which can be recommended to every serious seeker for reliable information on the man who stands at the centre of Christianity. A differing denominational allegiance may cause the author, in one or two instances, to seem to deviate, in his conclusions, from what is normally accepted as Catholic teaching. This should not, however, be allowed to detract from the undoubted overall value of his work for all Christians.

Version: 30th March 2006



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