Name: Jesus, Gnosis and Dogma
Price: 23.71 GBP
Availability: InStock
Author: Riemer Roukema
ISBN: 9780567466426

In "Jesus, Gnosis and Dogma" Riemer Roukema sets out to investigate and assess the various views of Jesus in early Christianity, basing his approach on a distinction between historical and theological statements about Jesus. Historical statements about Jesus can be arrived at through a careful and critical study of the earliest records, but Roukema recognizes that scholars differ widely here, their views ranging from the extremely sceptical to the very optimistic. Theological statements about Jesus are to do with His relationship to God and what has been and is believed about Jesus not only then but today; and it is often the case that these statements reflect more the convictions of their authors.

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Roukema has written this book in reaction to a widely held view that the Jesus of the Church (as witnessed in its creeds and formulae) is far removed from the Jesus of history. To take but one example, the inclusion of the Gospel of Thomas by the Jesus Seminar demonstrates a view that the 'real' Jesus is more gnostic that the New Testament suggests. Jesus, Gnosis & Dogma, is a sustained argument in favour of the Jesus as understood by the developing church. For Roukema, the understanding of Jesus to be found in gnostic gospels and other writings is itself the deviation. Moreover, the 'high' Christology of the early church is something which is earlier and not later. In other words, the church did not hijack a simple carpenter and turn him into God. In arguing his case, Roukema points out that the New Testament texts themselves are older than the gnostic ones and share the same cultural milieu as Jesus. He argues that later Christianity, and the ecumenical councils, were left to work out the implications of the divinity of Christ - and particularly render this understandable to the Greek world -but that is not to say that they have substantially changed the understanding of Christ which stretches back to the gospels. There is much to commend this book, even if parts of it are somewhat strong meat for many. It certainly deserves to be read along with the more sceptical texts of the various quests for the 'historical Jesus' and provides a helpful counter balance to their received wisdom.

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