Jesus, Gnosis and Dogma
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Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN: 9780567466426
Number of Pages: 256
Published: 18/02/2010
Width: 15.6 cm
Height: 23.4 cm
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.
1. Introduction; 2. Jesus' origin and identity; 3. Jesus' teachings; 4. Jesus' death, resurrection, and exaltation; 5. Preliminary conclusions and new questions; 6. Jewish Christianity; 7. Did Jesus have secret teachings?; 8. Does Jesus as LORD and Son of God fit in with early Judaism?; 9. Jesus and the Trinitarian dogma; 10. Conclusions and evaluation; Bibliography; Indices: Bible, some other early Christian writings, names and themes.
"'The author is very well acqainted with gnostic literature, and manages to present a complex matter in a comprehensible way and at the same time to make his point: orthodox Christianity has a solid historical basis, and the gnostic variant is secondary.' - Gie Vleugels, Evangelical Theological Faculty, Louvain, Belgium 'This book covers both the New Testament and early Church history. The author appears to be an expert in both disciplines. This implies that the reader can trust to be expertly introduced into ancient gnostic texts like the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Judas, the Gospel of Mary, Theodotus, Cerinthus, the Ophites and the Tripartite Tractate... I am convinced that this is a solid book for someone who wants to form a well founded opinion about Jesus.' - Huub van de Sandt, Faculty of Humanities, University of Tilburg, The Netherlands"