Kirjahaku

A Sociological investigation into the life of the early Church by one of the twentieth-century's leading Biblical Scholars.

This book, 'Dr Theissen remarks, 'means more to me than any other of my writings. The ideas in it go back to my student days, and my dissatisfaction then over the attitude of so many theologians. I kept on asking myself, how they could go on working, day after day, when they could not even give a convincing answer to the insinuation that God is an illusion. I resolved either to find an answer of my own or to give up theology altogether.' This is his answer. In a short and clearly reasoned study he considers the arguments most commonly produced against Christian belief from the outside, and explores how they can be answered. First he looks at the charge that Christianity is an ideology born out of social conflict and distorted personalities. Then he counters the criticism that religious belief has no grounding in everyday experience and reality. Finally, he argues against the view that the historical approach makes everything relative. There are good reasons, he concludes, for being a Christian. But this does not mean that Christianity can be defended in its traditional form. It will have to change if it is not going to lose all credibility in the modern world.

Signs of Life follows the signs from God in a world from which he seems to have disappeared. It points out how they are often to be found in unexpected places, in the offensive, the immoral and the absurd. A brilliant collection from the pre-eminent New Testament scholar who wrote The Shadow of the Galilean. He believes that modern sermons are indications that God is alive and getting in touch through the barriers put up by our everyday mentality.

Combining New Testament study with the terseness of thriller writing, Gerd Theissen conveys the gospel story in the fresh and imaginative prose of a novel. The story is told by Andreas, an imaginary contemporary of Jesus, through whom we learn a great deal about life and politics in Palestine, as well as what Jesus (the Galilean of the title) might have been like and how he might have behaved.

A discussion of 'primitive' Christianity - Christianity in its original form, this work was first given as Speaker's Lectures in Oxford. Covering the first five centuries of Christianity, it argues that neither a theology of the New Testament nor a history of the early Church can do justice to all the dimensions of the earliest Christianity. It explores in depth the formation of primitive Christianity and studies the effect of the two great crises of primitive Christianity: the split with Judaism and the threat from Gnosticism. It is aimed at academic theologians.

There is no better book than this to introduce any reader to the New Testament. Gerd Theissen presents all the main issues straightforwardly, but with a depth of scholarship and brilliance of analysis that is unsurpassed. Gerd Theissen's approach is so interesting and illuminating that anyone considering the New Testament for the first time, and even experienced students, will value this book immeasurably.

In the continuing quest for the elusive but compelling figure of Jesus of Nazareth, Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz's authoritative yet engaging book is the single most helpful resource to date. Comprehensively detailing the sources for our knowledge of Jesus, Theissen and Merz fully explore the historical and social context of Jesus and his activity. They then unfold what we can know about Jesus' characteristics as a charismatic teacher, a Jewish prophet, a healer, a teller of parables, and an ethical teacher. Finally, they examine closely the historical questions surrounding Jesus' last supper, his violent death, the accounts of Easter, and the beginnings of Christology. Beholden to neither ancient dogma nor contemporary fantasy, written in a clear style with a variety of learning aids, The Historical Jesus will provide students, teachers, and other individuals with a fascinating and reliable guide into this most exciting field of Jesus research.

In these distinguished Oxford lectures, Theissen picks up where he left off in The Historical Jesus (1998). Employing the notion of religion as a "cultural sign language which promises a gain in life by corresponding to an ultimate reality," he plots the emergence of Christianity as a religion, with elements of myth, ritual, ethics, and an emergent symbolic system. He expands upon the historical, social, and theological analysis of his earlier works to cover such issues as the relationship of Jesus to the earliest churches, power, possessions, interpretations of Jesus' death, and the separation of the church and synagogue. Theissen's most complete and systematic treatment of early Christianity to date Traces the gradual emergence of the most important beliefs about Jesus Encompasses beliefs, ethics, ritual, and the origin of the New Testament canon in one synthesis

All the main issues for reading the New Testament are covered in this exciting new introduction by one of the world's foremost biblical scholars.

Why read the Bible? Gerd Theissen uses the wisdom gained from decades of teaching Bible instruction at a state university to address questions of the Bible's relevance in a postmodern, pluralistic society. He describes the core themes and enduring value of the biblical legacy for anyone seeking to be a well-informed, self-aware, and responsible citizen, and he commends the contributions the Bible can make to interreligious and secular conversation.

Gerd Theissen describes the emergence of the New Testament canon out of the wide variety of early Christian literature, drawing on Max Webers discussion of the evolution of religious organizations. Theissen describes a series of phases in the life of the early Christian movement: the charismatic, the pseudepigraphic, the functional, and the canoni

Recent emphasis on the social matrix out of which the early church's documents arose marks a notable turn in the path of contemporary New Testament studies. Although the terms, goals, and procedures of scholars vary considerably, there is widespread agreement that much of the interesting and innovative work in the field is that of Gerd Theissen. Four of his most formidable and sustained contributions treat Paul's correspondence with the Christian community at Corinth. Together these four essays provide a composite picture of the social stratification at this ancient urban center and of the concrete organizational and ethical problems that that stratification engendered for the Christians' common life. A fifth essay helps to focus the critical questions of methodology that arise whenever one approaches ancient religious texts for information on issues which to the texts themselves are of peripheral concern. A lucid introduction by the translator and a helpful bibliography of the author's major writings round out this significant exploration and interpretation of the social world of early Christianity.

English summary: Inspired by R. Bultmann=s program of demythologization, this text inquires into the truth of mythical images in the Bible. It examines the various ways in which the Bible talks about God: narratively, dialogically, and doxologically, as well as ethically, mystically, and metaphysically. The Bible interprets Christological imagery as a kerygmatic message that leads to confrontation with God, as poetic imagination that seeks existential fulfilment, as a world of social symbols that creates sacred communal spaces. The ?demythologization= of this symbolic world starts with faith in the Holy Spirit: the cross reveals our distance from God, and the mystery of Easter renews God=s nearness to us as a resonance in human beings through the Spirit. After 80A years, Bultmann=s programme of demythologization is in this way renewed and continued kerygmatically and poetically, existentially and socially, cosmically and mystically. The concern remains the same: to decipher the message of the Bible through its mythical images. German description: Inspiriert durch das Entmythologisierungsprogramm von R. Bultmann fragt diese Schrift nach der Wahrheit mythischer Bilder in der Bibel. Sie untersucht, wie vielfaltig die Bibel von Gott redet: narrativ, dialogisch und doxologisch, dazu ethisch, mystisch und metaphysisch. Sie deutet christologische Bilder als kerygmatische Botschaft, die mit Gott konfrontiert, als poetische Imagination, die existenzielle Erfullung sucht, als soziale Zeichenwelt, die sakrale Gemeinschaftsraume schafft. Im Glauben an den Heiligen Geist beginnt die "Entmythologisierung" dieser Zeichenwelt: Das Kreuz offenbart die Ferne von Gott, Ostermystik erneuert Gottes Nahe als Resonanz im Menschen durch den Geist. Das Entmythologisierungsprogramm R. Bultmanns wird so nach 80 Jahren kerygmatisch und poetisch, existenzial und sozial, kosmisch und mystisch erneuert und weitergeschrieben. Das Anliegen bleibt dasselbe: die Botschaft der Bibel in ihren mythischen Bildern zu entziffern.

Religion ist "Resonanz der Gesamtwirklichkeit im Menschen, die sich intentional auf ihren Ursprung bezieht und Menschen verbindet". Die Texte urchristlicher Religion konnen psychologisch durch existenziale Auslegung als Suche nach einer Personlichkeitstheorie verstanden werden. Hinzu kommen Untersuchungen von Emotionen, Kognitionen und Motivationen, ferner Sozial- und Tiefenpsychologie. Gerd Theissen bietet eine Zwischenbilanz zur religionspsychologischen Exegese, will "Antipsychologismus" in der protestantischen Exegese uberwinden, erkennt die Offenheit der katholischen Theologie fur sie an und will Wege zeigen, wie man dezidierte psychologische Religionskritik positiv aufgreifen kann: Urchristliche Religion hatte ein therapeutisches Potenzial, sofern sie z.B. Wiederholungszwang bei Waschungen und Opfern durch Taufe und Eucharistie beendete und neue Formen emotionaler, kognitiver und motivationaler Lebensbewaltigung moglich machte.

Die hier versammelten Beitrage zur Jesusforschung verbinden den sozialgeschichtlichen und "erinnerungshermeneutischen" Ansatz. Der Nachweis einer Rollenpluralitat in der Jesusuberlieferung knupft an real- und sozialgeschichtlichen Forschungen an, die Jesus in die judische Geschichte einbetten, die Beobachtung von Rollentransformationen in der Jesusuberlieferung entspricht der Erinnerungshermeneutik: Alles, was wir von Jesus wissen, wurde in Erinnerungen an ihn im Urchristentum verandert. Die Pluralitat der Rollen ist die Grundlage, trotzdem in diesen Erinnerungen "wirkungsauthentische" Spuren Jesu zu erkennen, die ohne Jesu Wirken unverstandlich waren. Ihre Transformation folgt den Tendenzen einer Gemeinschaft, die in ihm den Beginn einer neuen Welt sah. Gerd Theissen fuhrt in Fortsetzung historischer Ansatze in Form- und Religionsgeschichte Ergebnisse der beiden letzten Phasen der Jesusforschung zusammen und widerspricht einer Skepsis, die ihn im Nebel von Legenden und Mythen unsichtbar macht.

Das Lehrbuch will auf möglichst sachliche und verständliche Weise über die Ergebnisse der wissenschaftlichen Forschung zum historischen Jesus informieren. Jesus wird als eine auch heute noch erkennbare, tief im Judentum verwurzelte, profilierte Gestalt dargestellt. Es wird verständlich, dass seine Anhänger ihn als Messias und Gottessohn verehrten.