Whose Jesus Is It?

Luke Timothy Johnson, Living Jesus. San Francisco: Harper, 1998. 210pp. $22.00 (cloth).

Anyone who has read Luke Timothy Johnson's works of late knows that he strongly criticizes both the Jesus Seminar and the use of the historical method in biblical interpretation. In my opinion, he wrote his previous book, The Real Jesus, in haste. And in the preface to this more recent work, he remarks: "It [Living Jesus] is a less polemical and more constructive sequel to my recent publication, The Real Jesus."

Johnson divides this new book into two sections. The first deals with the living, resurrected Jesus and how the individual responds in faith to his presence. He also includes Paul's understanding of Jesus, as well as other NT writings, excluding the gospels. This section makes for good contemporary spiritual reading

The second section presents the four gospel portraits of Jesus. Although Johnson uses many of the methods and findings of the historical critical method, he hopes to present a book on the living Jesus rather than the dead Jesus of the historians. He rightly presents the resurrection as the starting point for all followers of Jesus and for all writing about Jesus. Of course it was the historical critics that restored the resurrection to its rightful place after centuries of neglect. For many years, most Christian apologists viewed the resurrection as the final and greatest miracle of Jesus, which attested to his divinity. The historical critics saw the resurrection as the basis of Easter faith, which gave birth to Christianity and the New Testament.

Few people who study the New Testament today use one method exclusively. No doubt the historical critical method used by some members of the Jesus Seminar, and other scholars such as the late Raymond Brown and John Meier, has caused problems for some traditional Christians. But it is unfair to lump all of those who deal with the historical Jesus in the same bundle. The historical critical method has brought richness to the study of the New Testament; and Johnson himself seems to have benefited greatly from it. Even the Jesus Seminar, in spite of is critics, has offered much in coming to a clearer and more accurate understanding of the earthly Jesus, which differs from the Jesus known only through the gospels and the Jesus of faith who lives in the church today.

Although both Protestant and Catholic scholars have written in praise of this work, I have reservations. Other books present a more thorough summary of the various portraits of Jesus in the New Testament. Many have concentrated on the need for the spiritual life of the Christian based on the resurrected Lord. Those books are not, however, polemics against the "Questers" nor critiques of the historical method in biblical interpretation.

Finally any reviewer must ask: "For whom was this book written?" Johnson says he wrote the book for "people like me who find much of what is called spirituality too far removed from traditional Christian faith and much of what is written about Jesus too little concerned with the transformation of human freedom" (1). I can imagine he means the New Age movement in the first place, and the Jesus Seminar in the second place, but I am not sure for whom the book is written.

Living Jesus contains many valuable insights into the meaning of Jesus for the contemporary Christian. No doubt Johnson knows the contemporary scene of New Testament exegesis well. But when an author writes polemically, even when he claims he does not, something suffers. The Jesus Seminar does not speak for the majority of New Testament scholars, but it does have value. The historical method in biblical interpretation should never be the only method -- and it is not -- but it has contributed much to understanding Christianity, Jesus, and the New Testament -- and thus to faith. If the classical definition of theology is faith seeking understanding (quoted by Johnson), then any effort to understand faith, however imperfect (and they all are imperfect) has value for the expert and for the intelligent believer who likewise seeks understanding.