Jesus, Man or Myth?

A respected theologian responds to questions about the historical Christ Jesus Christ is one of the most revered, and at the same time, maligned figures in human history. We know for certain that after his death, Jesus of Nazareth did not simply disappear into the history books. Rather, his followers assert that he is still alive today and very much present in their lives, and there is still much interest - from both critics and followers of Christianity alike - in studying claims about the historical Jesus. In the introduction to "Jesus, Man or Myth?", Carsten Peter Thiede asserts that questions about the historical Jesus are essential to coming to understand the Christ of faith. The message of Christ is both one of history and one of faith; the two aspects are two sides of the same coin. Thiede believes that to answer questions such as 'Did Jesus exist?', 'Did he perform miracles?', 'Did he die on the cross?', we need to go back to the original historical accounts published by the first followers of Christ - the Gospels, Acts and the New Testament letters.What follows is a clear, scholarly discourse in which Thiede proposes and answers questions about what we can know today about Jesus. He examines in nine chapters the evidence for Jesus' existence, his place in Jewish tradition, his birth, teachings, miracles, death and resurrection. By finding out more about the Jesus of history, we can make an enlightened choice about the Christ of today, and discover him not as myth, but as a true historical figure about whom faith claims can justifiably be made.