Jesus and the Rise of Nationalism: A New Quest for the Nineteenth-Century Historical Jesus

Description

The great German theologian Albert Schweitzer famously drew a line under nineteenth-century historical Jesus research by showing that at the bottom of the well lay not the face of Joseph's son, but rather the features of all the New Testament scholars who had tried to reveal his elusive essence. In his thoughtful and provocative new book, Halvor Moxnes takes Schweitzer's observation much further: the doomed 'quest for the historical Jesus' was determined not only by the different personalities of the seekers who undertook it, but also by the social, cultural and political agendas of the countries from which their presentations emerged. Thus, Friedrich Schleiermacher's Jesus was a teacher, corresponding with the role German teachers played in Germany's movement for democratic socialism. Ernst Renan's Jesus was by contrast an attempt to represent the 'positive Orient' as a precursor to the civilized self of his own French society. Scottish theologian G A Smith demonstrated in his manly portrayal of Jesus a distinctively British liberalism and Victorian moralism. Moxnes argues that one cannot understand any 'life of Jesus' apart from nationalism and national identity: and that what is needed in modern biblical studies is an awareness of all the presuppositions that underlie presentations of Jesus, whether in terms of power, gender, sex and class. Only then, he says, can we start to look at Jesus in a way that does him justice. Cover Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: Jesus and Modern Identities The Rise of Nationalism and the Historical Jesus Beyond Schweitzer’s Account of the Quest for the Historical Jesus The Historical Jesus and Discourses of Nationalism How to Read this Book I. Writing a Biography of Jesus in an age of Nationalism A New Form of Writing about Jesus The Function of Biography Jesus as a National Hero Conclusion II. Holy Land as Homeland: The Nineteenth-Century Landscape of Jesus Introduction Between Homeland and Holy Land Imperial Gazes at the Holy Land A Protestant Holy Land Conclusion III. Imagining a Nation: Schleiermacher’s Jesus as Teacher to the Nation Introduction Schleiermacher and His Biography of Jesus The Great Man and His People Jesus as Teacher to the Nation The Kingdom of God and the Nation Conclusion: Jesus as Nation IV. A Protestant Nation: D. F. Strauss and Jesus for ‘The German People’ Introduction A ‘Modern’ Nineteenth-Century Writer Jesus of The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined A German Jesus Last Stage: Jesus as ‘Enthusiast’ Conclusion: A Masculine Nation V. ‘Familiar and Foreign’: Life of Jesus in the Orientalism of Renan Introduction The Orientalist Location of Renan The Two Faces of the Orient Galilee, Kingdom and Nation The Dilemma of Renan and Race Conclusion: After Whiteness VI. The Manly Nation: Moral Landscape and National Character in George Adam Smith’s The Historical Geography of the Holy Land Introduction: Britain as Nation A Geography of The Holy Land, Nation and Empire The Nation as Moral Character The Moral Landscape of Galilee Places of Temptation: Nazareth Places of Temptation: Caesarea Philippi Imagining a Manly Nation Conclusion VII. Jesus Beyond Nationalism: Imagining a Post-National World Jesus: a Utopian Biography? What Would Jesus Deconstruct? What is a (World) People? Family Values in a Global World A Moral World Geography Notes Bibliography Index of Modern Authors Index of Subjects