The Resurrection of History: History, Theology, and the Resurrection of Jesus
By David Bruce and Brian Arthur Brown
()
About this ebook
In The Resurrection of History, David Bruce explores what historians, theologians, and New Testament scholars have said about the resurrection of Jesus from a historical point of view. Bruce argues that scholars don't have to dismiss the scriptural witness that "he is risen" as metaphor or wishful thinking.
Bruce examines the development of the art of history writing and explores the theological possibilities now open to scholars in the twenty-first century. Using contemporary examples, Bruce helps his readers come to grips with the interrelationship of history and theology and think like theologically-informed historians. Respectful of varying points of view, Bruce defends the traditional, orthodox view of the resurrection and challenges his readers to consider the implications for Christian faith and witness if, in fact, the resurrection of Jesus was historical.
David Bruce
I would like to see my retellings of classic literature used in schools, so I give permission to the country of Finland (and all other countries) to give copies of my eBooks to all students and citizens forever. I also give permission to the state of Texas (and all other states) to give copies of my eBooks to all students forever. I also give permission to all teachers to give copies of my eBooks to all students forever.Teachers need not actually teach my retellings. Teachers are welcome to give students copies of my eBooks as background material. For example, if they are teaching Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey,” teachers are welcome to give students copies of my “Virgil’s ‘Aeneid’: A Retelling in Prose” and tell students, “Here’s another ancient epic you may want to read in your spare time.”Do you know a language other than English? I give you permission to translate any of my retellings of classic literature, copyright your translation in your name, publish or self-publish your translation (but do say it's a translation of something I wrote), and keep all the royalties for yourself.Libraries, download my books free. This is from Smashwords' FAQ section:"Does Smashwords distribute to libraries?"Yes! We have two methods of distributing to libraries: 1. Via library aggregators. Library aggregators, such as OverDrive and Baker & Taylor's Axis360 service, allow libraries to purchase books. Smashwords is working with multiple library aggregators, and is in the process of signing up additional aggregators. 2. On August 7, 2012, Smashwords announced Library Direct. This distribution option allows libraries and library networks to acquire and host Smashwords ebooks on their own servers. This option is only available to libraries who place large "opening collection" orders, typically in the range of $20,000-$50,000, and the libraries must have the ability to host and manage the books, and apply industry-standard DRM to manage one-checkout-at-a-time borrows."David Bruce is a retired anecdote columnist at "The Athens News" in Athens, Ohio. He has also retired from teaching English and philosophy at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.SOME BOOKS BY DAVID BRUCERetellings of a Classic Work of Literature:Arden of Favorsham: A RetellingBen Jonson’s The Alchemist: A RetellingBen Jonson’s The Arraignment, or Poetaster: A RetellingBen Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair: A RetellingBen Jonson’s The Case is Altered: A RetellingBen Jonson’s Catiline’s Conspiracy: A RetellingBen Jonson’s The Devil is an Ass: A RetellingBen Jonson’s Epicene: A RetellingBen Jonson’s Every Man in His Humor: A RetellingBen Jonson’s Every Man Out of His Humor: A RetellingBen Jonson’s The Fountain of Self-Love, or Cynthia’s Revels: A RetellingBen Jonson’s The Magnetic Lady: A RetellingBen Jonson’s The New Inn: A RetellingBen Jonson’s Sejanus' Fall: A RetellingBen Jonson’s The Staple of News: A RetellingBen Jonson’s A Tale of a Tub: A RetellingBen Jonson’s Volpone, or the Fox: A RetellingChristopher Marlowe’s Complete Plays: RetellingsChristopher Marlowe’s Dido, Queen of Carthage: A RetellingChristopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus: Retellings of the 1604 A-Text and of the 1616 B-TextChristopher Marlowe’s Edward II: A RetellingChristopher Marlowe’s The Massacre at Paris: A RetellingChristopher Marlowe’s The Rich Jew of Malta: A RetellingChristopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine, Parts 1 and 2: RetellingsDante’s Divine Comedy: A Retelling in ProseDante’s Inferno: A Retelling in ProseDante’s Purgatory: A Retelling in ProseDante’s Paradise: A Retelling in ProseThe Famous Victories of Henry V: A RetellingFrom the Iliad to the Odyssey: A Retelling in Prose of Quintus of Smyrna’s PosthomericaGeorge Chapman, Ben Jonson, and John Marston’s Eastward Ho! A RetellingGeorge Peele: Five Plays Retold in Modern EnglishGeorge Peele’s The Arraignment of Paris: A RetellingGeorge Peele’s The Battle of Alcazar: A RetellingGeorge Peele’s David and Bathsheba, and the Tragedy of Absalom: A RetellingGeorge Peele’s Edward I: A RetellingGeorge Peele’s The Old Wives’ Tale: A RetellingGeorge-A-Greene, The Pinner of Wakefield: A RetellingThe History of King Leir: A RetellingHomer’s Iliad: A Retelling in ProseHomer’s Odyssey: A Retelling in ProseJason and the Argonauts: A Retelling in Prose of Apollonius of Rhodes’ ArgonauticaThe Jests of George Peele: A RetellingJohn Ford: Eight Plays Translated into Modern EnglishJohn Ford’s The Broken Heart: A RetellingJohn Ford’s The Fancies, Chaste and Noble: A RetellingJohn Ford’s The Lady’s Trial: A RetellingJohn Ford’s The Lover’s Melancholy: A RetellingJohn Ford’s Love’s Sacrifice: A RetellingJohn Ford’s Perkin Warbeck: A RetellingJohn Ford’s The Queen: A RetellingJohn Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore: A RetellingJohn Lyly's Campaspe: A RetellingJohn Lyly's Endymion, the Man in the Moon: A RetellingJohn Lyly's Gallathea, aka Galathea, aka Galatea: A RetellingJohn Lyly's Love's Metamorphosis: A RetellingJohn Lyly's Midas: A RetellingJohn Lyly's Mother Bombie: A RetellingJohn Lyly's Sappho and Phao: A RetellingJohn Lyly's The Woman in the Moon: A RetellingJohn Webster’s The White Devil: A RetellingJ.W. Gent.'s The Valiant Scot: A RetellingKing Edward III: A RetellingMankind: A Medieval Morality Play (A Retelling)Margaret Cavendish's The Unnatural Tragedy: A RetellingThe Merry Devil of Edmonton: A RetellingRobert Greene’s Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay: A RetellingThe Taming of a Shrew: A RetellingTarlton’s Jests: A RetellingThomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker’s The Roaring Girl: A RetellingThomas Middleton and William Rowley’s The Changeling: A RetellingThomas Middleton's A Chaste Maid in Cheapside: A RetellingThomas Middleton's Women Beware Women: A RetellingThe Trojan War and Its Aftermath: Four Ancient Epic PoemsVirgil’s Aeneid: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s 5 Late Romances: Retellings in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s 10 Histories: Retellings in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s 11 Tragedies: Retellings in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s 12 Comedies: Retellings in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s 38 Plays: Retellings in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s 1 Henry IV, aka Henry IV, Part 1: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s 2 Henry IV, aka Henry IV, Part 2: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s 1 Henry VI, aka Henry VI, Part 1: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s 2 Henry VI, aka Henry VI, Part 2: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s 3 Henry VI, aka Henry VI, Part 3: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s All’s Well that Ends Well: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s As You Like It: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Coriolanus: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Cymbeline: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Hamlet: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Henry V: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Henry VIII: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s King John: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s King Lear: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Macbeth: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Othello: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Pericles, Prince of Tyre: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Richard II: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Richard III: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s The Tempest: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s The Two Noble Kinsmen: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale: A Retelling in ProseChildren’s Biography:Nadia Comaneci: Perfect TenAnecdote Collections:250 Anecdotes About Music250 Anecdotes About Opera250 Anecdotes About Religion250 Anecdotes About Religion: Volume 2Be a Work of Art: 250 Anecdotes and StoriesThe Coolest People in Art: 250 AnecdotesThe Coolest People in the Arts: 250 AnecdotesThe Coolest People in Books: 250 AnecdotesThe Coolest People in Comedy: 250 AnecdotesCreate, Then Take a Break: 250 AnecdotesDon’t Fear the Reaper: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Art: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Books: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Books, Volume 2: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Books, Volume 3: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Comedy: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Dance: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Families: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Families, Volume 2: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Families, Volume 3: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Families, Volume 4: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Families, Volume 5: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Families, Volume 6: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Movies: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Music: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Music, Volume 2: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Music, Volume 3: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Neighborhoods: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Relationships: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Sports: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Television and Radio: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Theater: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People Who Live Life: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People Who Live Life, Volume 2: 250 AnecdotesMaximum Cool: 250 AnecdotesThe Most Interesting People in Movies: 250 AnecdotesThe Most Interesting People in Politics and History: 250 AnecdotesThe Most Interesting People in Politics and History, Volume 2: 250 AnecdotesThe Most Interesting People in Politics and History, Volume 3: 250 AnecdotesThe Most Interesting People in Religion: 250 AnecdotesThe Most Interesting People in Sports: 250 AnecdotesThe Most Interesting People Who Live Life: 250 AnecdotesThe Most Interesting People Who Live Life, Volume 2: 250 AnecdotesReality is Fabulous: 250 Anecdotes and StoriesResist Psychic Death: 250 AnecdotesSeize the Day: 250 Anecdotes and StoriesKindest People Series:The Kindest People Who Do Good Deeds: Volume 1The Kindest People Who Do Good Deeds: Volume 2The Kindest People Who Do Good Deeds: Volume 3Discussion Guide Series:Dante’s Inferno: A Discussion GuideDante’s Paradise: A Discussion GuideDante’s Purgatory: A Discussion GuideForrest Carter’s The Education of Little Tree: A Discussion GuideHomer’s Iliad: A Discussion GuideHomer’s Odyssey: A Discussion GuideJane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: A Discussion GuideJerry Spinelli’s Maniac Magee: A Discussion GuideJerry Spinelli’s Stargirl: A Discussion GuideJonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”: A Discussion GuideLloyd Alexander’s The Black Cauldron: A Discussion GuideLloyd Alexander’s The Book of Three: A Discussion GuideMark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: A Discussion GuideMark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: A Discussion GuideMark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court: A Discussion GuideMark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper: A Discussion GuideNancy Garden’s Annie on My Mind: A Discussion GuideNicholas Sparks’ A Walk to Remember: A Discussion GuideVirgil’s Aeneid: A Discussion GuideVirgil’s “The Fall of Troy”: A Discussion GuideVoltaire’s Candide: A Discussion GuideWilliam Shakespeare’s 1 Henry IV: A Discussion GuideWilliam Shakespeare’s Macbeth: A Discussion GuideWilliam Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Discussion GuideWilliam Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: A Discussion GuideWilliam Sleator’s Oddballs: A Discussion GuideComposition Projects:Composition Project: Writing an Autobiographical EssayComposition Project: Writing a Hero-of-Human-Rights EssayComposition Project: Writing a Problem-Solving LetterTeaching:How to Teach the Autobiographical Essay Composition Project in 9 ClassesAutobiography (of sorts):My Life and Hard Times, or Down and Out in Athens, OhioMiscellaneous:Mark Twain Anecdotes and QuotesProblem-Solving 101: Can You Solve the Problem?Why I Support Same-Sex Civil MarriageBlogs:https://davidbruceblog429065578.wordpress.comhttps://davidbrucebooks.blogspot.comhttps://davidbruceblog4.wordpress.comhttps://bruceb22.wixsite.com/website
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The Resurrection of History - David Bruce
The Resurrection of History
History, Theology, and the Resurrection of Jesus
David Bruce
foreword by
Brian Arthur Brown
12735.pngThe Resurrection of History
History, Theology, and the Resurrection of Jesus
Copyright © 2014 David Bruce. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.
Wipf and Stock
An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers
199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3
Eugene, OR 97401
www.wipfandstock.com
ISBN 13: 978-1-62564-651-4
EISBN 13: 978-1-63087-481-0
Manufactured in the U.S.A. 10/06/2014
Preface
About twenty-five years ago, during my basic ministry studies with the United Church of Canada in Toronto, I wrote a brief paper on the symbolism of the resurrection of Jesus. In that short essay I argued that deciding whether the resurrection of Jesus was a historical event or simply an image of perennial truth would affect its symbolic value. The only trouble was that I had no idea what I was talking about, beyond that bare intuition. Twenty-five years and two doctorates later, I might confidently say I have half a clue—if only half. I am, however, like a wee lad with five loaves and a couple of fish, happy to share what I have with you.
I began my career in pastoral ministry believing that Jesus’ resurrection was little more than a motif of hope, even if you would never have known it from my overly cautious sermons. I did believe that Jesus’ resurrection was a historical event (though not necessarily a bodily one), and that God had done something within human history, but I largely lacked the conceptual apparatus to make much of a case for that. In this regard, I seemed to be well in step with my mainline Protestant colleagues.
The old Latin proverb lex orandi, lex credendi has often been quoted, and in my case it bore out. As I continued to preach, I grew more skeptical of my own position on the resurrection. I was finally caught up one fateful afternoon in a new-members class for a congregation I was serving, in which my wife Janet had decided to take part. She openly admitted to those gathered (and yes, I have permission to tell the story!) that she didn’t believe in the resurrection or even in life after death, but that she hoped to live on in the memory of our children. There was stunned silence in the group. I finally ventured out, again more cautiously than is my natural bent, and commented, Easter must be a bummer for you.
We all laughed—which was the desired outcome, but Janet said that yes, she had always felt a little alienated by the language of Easter.
That class was a great turning point for me. I soon enrolled in a doctor of ministry program in a leading seminary in order to critically examine both the content and process of my parish teaching. The result was—to my surprise—an increasing commitment to the orthodoxy of the ancient church and the importance of catechesis, and the publication of Jesus 24/7: A Short Course in Faith for the Questing Christian.¹ In that resource, I reaffirmed, in mainline Protestant language, the classic doctrines of the Trinity, the incarnation, and yes, the bodily, historical resurrection of Jesus. It seems that I wasn’t alone in my interest to revisit the roots of Christian faith; even in my very liberal tradition, my little book sold very well, and was followed by Jesus 24/7 Youth!, Jesus 24/7 Guide to the Bible, and Jesus 24/7 Guide to Spiritual Growth.
Having positioned myself as a teacher, however, I realized that I still had much to learn, and so I returned to the specific question of the resurrection of Jesus in a second set of doctoral studies, this time at the Toronto School of Theology of the University of Toronto. At the urging of my supervisor Michael Bourgeois, my mentor Harold Wells, and my instructor and often-muse Fr. Gilles Mongeau, I made a study of historiography and historical method, and examined the question of what it would mean to declare the resurrection of Jesus to be a historical event. The result was a thesis with the sleep-inducing title (as all dissertations seem to have), The Theological Implications of Declaring the Resurrection of Jesus to Be Historical.
In it I traced the dialectical relationship between shifting historiographical trends and academic theology, especially where it concerned the resurrection of Jesus.
Along the way I had also begun exploring classic Christian spirituality, at least in its Western form. I began praying the Liturgy of the Hours, sneaking off to attend Mass whenever possible. I took detailed, in-depth catechetical instruction from the late Fr. Terrence Walsh, SJ, while under the wise and gentle spiritual direction of Ignatius Feaver, OFM. It was a seven-year journey that ended with my leaving the United Church of Canada and being received into the Catholic Church in July of 2011. I took up rich and satisfying work with homeless and marginalized men at the Good Neighbours’ Club in downtown Toronto while becoming increasingly involved in the day-to-day life of the Catholic Church as a layperson. I still run retreats, lead small groups, publish articles here and there (most recently writing the Introduction to the Gospels
in Brian Arthur Brown’s Three Testaments: Torah, Gospel, Quran,² and in these efforts seek to share my handful of insights with fellow travellers on life’s journey.
My gratitude goes out to my longsuffering wife Janet, my now-grown children Heather, Geoffrey, and Paul, my mentors at the Toronto School of Theology, the wonderful Friars and my fellow parishioners at the Conventual Franciscan Parish of Saint Bonaventure, and to my publisher for enabling me to connect with you.
1 Toronto: United Church,
2008
.
2 Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield,
2012
.
Foreword
In The Resurrection of History, David Bruce digs deeper than most New Testament scholars want to go.
Instead of naively assuming that the New Testament accounts of the resurrection of Jesus are telling the truth
on the one hand or are just a pack of fables on the other, Bruce asks us to slow down and first ask the question, "What does it mean to say anything is historical? He even opens the door to questions about the nature of reality, appropriate in this age of God particles and
quantum theology."
But David Bruce maintains focus on the issue of history, a question that is actually more difficult to answer than you might think. Many throughout the centuries have tried to answer it, but Bruce deftly shows how what we think it means for something to be historical
is wrapped up in our different understandings of God, the universe, and even the meaning of life.
Rather than throwing up his hands in futility, Bruce engages some of the best historical, philosophical, and theological minds of the previous century, believing that if we are to take Jesus seriously, and wrestle with the Church’s claims that he rose from the dead, we have to get our twenty-first-century thoughts organized. Bruce isn’t afraid to critically examine the twentieth-century ideas of Bultmann and Barth, Moltmann and von Balthasar, or Crossan and Wright and to move beyond them. The hardest thing to believe about Bruce’s exploration is how easy he makes it for readers like you and me to follow centuries of discussion about the most serious—and most controversial—claim of Christianity, enabling us to move on
ourselves in ways that are faithful in our time.
In the end, Bruce comes out squarely on the side of the long-standing tradition of the Church as something that can and should be embraced, but only after facing the challenges head on. He argues that if Christians in our day and age want to take their own faith seriously, they will have to come to grips with what the first Christians genuinely thought and said about the resurrection of Jesus, and then seriously wrestle with how we may embrace those claims as our own, should we choose to do so. In the end, Bruce is more interested in twenty-first-century Christians speaking about their faith with integrity than proving
the resurrection of Jesus to some imaginary neutral observer.
As a Christian minister, I have used David’s Jesus 24/7 series in my congregations, delighted by his ability to communicate the most subtle of concepts in the simplest, clearest way possible. As the author and editor of the Three Testaments series, I have been able to count on Bruce to represent the broader Christian tradition of the interreligious context in a manner that is not only faithful to the teachings of the church, but at the same time respectful of the beliefs of others. Recent Jewish commentary (The Resurrection of Jesus: A Jewish Perspective, by Pinchas Lapide) and traditional Islamic writings (questioning the crucifixion but not necessarily the resurrection) provide their own oeuvres on the profundities addressed by David Bruce, appropriate to interfaith conversations of a mutually respectful nature, which is becoming a twenty-first-century hallmark.
Whether you are Protestant or Catholic, liberal or conservative, or even if you are from another religious tradition looking in
on what Christians are saying, you will find yourself challenged to go deeper into your own values, your own assumptions, and your own personal faith by letting David Bruce guide you in pondering the pivotal Christian claim that Jesus Christ is risen indeed.
Brian Arthur Brown
Contributing editor, Three Testaments: Torah, Gospel and Quran
1 Introduction
In Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, Batman is surprised to see that an old nemesis, Ra’s al Ghul, has escaped from the inescapable
prison that he had been exiled to and presumably died in. The caped crusader, with a hint of whimsy, asks him what he had been doing with himself lately, to which his arch enemy replies that he has been busy practicing his favorite hobby: Resurrection.
There is no doubt that the term resurrection
is often used in a colloquial, casual fashion without theological implications. Most loosely, it acts as a synonym for resurgence,
as when the career of a politician or an athlete gets back on track after some time on the sidelines. In the case of Batman’s enemy, as with anyone who has experienced prolonged unemployment, it can mean a return to active duty. For others, it means the return of hope and optimism, or simply even normalcy after a devastating setback or assault on their person.
When it comes to how scholars and believers view the resurrection of Jesus, there are essentially two points of view, with many subtle variations. Both have become widely influential in our time among both Catholics and Protestants. One point of view depicts the resurrection of Jesus as an event that happens independently of the perception of the disciples, which is then interpreted and transmitted by them. The other point of view depicts the resurrection of Jesus as an event that happens principally within or among the hearts and minds of Jesus’ disciples, and what they transmit is their interior experience translated into narrative form. Before we examine in subsequent chapters the theoretical and technical issues involved in asserting either of these positions to be plausible, we need to be reasonable and commit to listening to both points of view.
The Orthodox Understanding of the Resurrection of Jesus
For some, the label orthodox
may mean Orthodox with a capital O
in distinction with Western, Catholic Christianity; for others, orthodox
may mean communally responsible, and therefore morally virtuous; for still others, orthodox
may mean the highly technical, over-refined dogmatic view defended by a monolithic medieval institution against all who would dare to think for themselves. In this writing, all I mean by the label orthodox
is the core understanding most commonly held by the majority of Christians through the last twenty centuries. I might have preferred to use the label traditional,
but that label has already been taken up by a particular form of history writing, as you will see below.
The orthodox understanding is that Jesus was raised from the dead in the way that the texts of the New Testament portray: several days after his crucifixion, Jesus rose bodily from the dead, emerging from his tomb more than a full day after his crucifixion, and appearing to his disciples on several separate occasions. The resurrection signaled, among other things, Jesus’ victory over sin and evil, God’s acceptance of Jesus’ death as an offering on behalf of humanity, and the issuing of a new invitation to all to participate in the divine life. Despite the recent trend toward vilifying the ancient and medieval church for holding unwaveringly to orthodox formulae as a means of controlling the faithful, there are actually several sources of motivation for the church for having maintained and still maintaining the traditional view of the resurrection of Jesus as an objective historical event, all of them honorable and worthy of thoughtful consideration.
First, the orthodox understanding is anti-reductionistic, and empowers those who are wary or at least skeptical of the tendency of the reigning intelligentsia to believe they have the last word on reality. Science, for instance, though long in the ascendancy in the Western world, can never finally furnish us with answers to the most fundamental questions of existence and meaning. A recent case in point was the discovery of the Higgs Boson, the so-called God particle, whose presence explained why atomic material has mass. While not discounting the scientific importance of this finding, most philosophers and theologians seemed unimpressed with the finding that there is more stuff
in the universe than previously thought, since the more fundamental questions are (1) why there is any stuff at all? and (2) what is the point of anything existing in the first place? To reduce the resurrection of Jesus to the impact of the disciples’ collective memory of Jesus is merely to replace metaphysics with psychology and reduce the ultimately mysterious workings of God to the relatively known quantities of human behavior, and in this way participate in the domestication of the transcendent.
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Second, the orthodox understanding asserts that our understanding of what is must in some respects precede our understanding of what we ought to do. The resurrection of Jesus is a great big stone in the river,
around which our fluid debates about ethics and social progress must flow, because it reveals something of God’s enduring character and God’s purposes for humankind. Construing the resurrection of Jesus purely in terms of a metaphor with ethical implications begs the question of whose ethics we are employing: the ethics of the rich, the ethics of the poor, the ethics of the powerful, or the ethics of the weak. Ethics without attention to the givens of reality, whether metaphysical or historical, lacks any enduring points of reference and winds up being only the expression of the social order of the day. What we ought to be about must be more than a matter of social convention; it must be grounded in our most fundamental understandings of reality. If we endorse the idea that ethics are merely the production of a given society, we will ultimately have to evaluate all impetus for social reform as accidental by-products of history rather than the disciplined application of reasoned judgment, a view which denigrates human rationality and freedom. Enduring values require metaphysical grounding if they are to be the standard against which a society is measured, or else they are simply the dressed-up expressions of self-interest of different social groupings. Just as experimentation without attention to scientific method is only an application of the experimenter’s own prejudices, so ethical reasoning without recourse to an overarching worldview or metanarrative has no claim to universality. If the resurrection of Jesus is a historical event, it could be regarded as revealing of the God who brought it about, and that would give us insight into the very values of God. In fact many argue that the significance of the resurrection lies in its eschatological (eschaton is a Greek word referring to the ultimate goal of history) character, that is, of what it says about human destiny and therefore proper human values.
Third, the orthodox understanding affirms the value of the body. In the broader Christian tradition, and especially in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions where the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is upheld, the incarnation of God is understood to demonstrate the fundamental goodness of material reality, including that of the human body. Respect for bodily existence impels Christians to feed the hungry, to house the homeless, and to provide medical care. Respect for bodily existence raises questions about purely utilitarian calculations in beginning-of-life and end-of-life matters such as abortion and euthanasia. Affirming the resurrection of Jesus as a historical event in which Jesus was re-embodied is consistent with the affirmation of the dignity of all bodily existence, including the very young and the very old. It also speaks a word of hope to those who have been marginalized for some bodily characteristic, whether that be gender, skin-color, infirmity, or relative physical or mental disability: God will ultimately vindicate that human suffering which occurs in virtue of our embodied existence by granting the transformation of our bodies into a fully perfected state: the resurrection of Jesus is God’s seal on that promise for all of us. The body-affirming understanding of the resurrection of Jesus directs Christian ethical reasoning toward a holistic view of the human person and respect for basic material needs.
Fourth, the orthodox understanding provides solid grounding for continued humility. The belief that God intervened in human history carries with it the implication that humankind is not so evolved as to beyond the need of divine help. It also implies that