Jesus [Paperback]

W. Bousset (Author), Janet Penrose Trevelyan (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2005

1906. Edited by Reverend W.D. Morrison. Contents: Book I. The Outward Course of the Life of Jesus, and the Forms of His Activity: The Ministry; The Character of Jesus, and His Relations with Contemporary Rabbinism and Essenism; Jesus as Preacher and Healer; Disciples and Opponents; Book II. The Teaching of Jesus: The Kingdom of God; Jesus' Conception of God; The Last Judgment; The Moral Teaching of Jesus; Book III. The Mystery of the Person: Jesus and the Messiahship; and The Son of Man.

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Kessinger Publishing, LLC (April 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1417917601
• ISBN-13: 978-1417917600
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,196,066 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars AN OFTEN-OVERLOOKED EARLY 20TH CENTURY STUDY OF JESUS, June 14, 2010

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jesus (Paperback)

Wilhelm Bousset (1865-1920) was a German theologian and New Testament scholar. This book was published in the early 20th century (about 1906?).

Bousset divides the book into three main sections: "The Outward Course of the Life of Jesus, and the Forms of His Activity"; "The Teaching of Jesus," and "The Mystery of the Person." He notes that "wherever it is a question of the internal course of Jesus' life, we find ourselves plunged in uncertainties and obliged to be content with conjectures of a greater or less degree of probability"; accordingly, he suggests, "It will be well, therefore, to forego all attempts at a formal history of Jesus. Yet our knowledge of him is far greater than the preceding scanty survey would lead us to suppose."

Here are some of his observations:

"Jesus had nothing whatever to do with the sect of the Essenes."
"Jesus was and remains master of the parable."
"Jesus never spoke more than dimly of a time in which the Gentiles also should enter the Kingdom of God."
"(For Jesus), God was a purely spiritual, personal reality."
"(A)ll Jesus' moral demands were based upon and prompted by the idea of reward and punishment in the Last Judgment."
"The Gospel was in the highest and most perfect sense a personal religion."
"Jesus considered himself to be the Messiah of his people."
"(H)e never overstepped the limits of the purely human. The almighty God remained before his eyes a subblime and lofty presence; he did not presume to place himself at His side."
"Jesus never conceived or expressed the thought that God's forgiveness of sins depended absolutely upon his own sacrificial death or upon the vicarious atonment rendered by his death."

This book retains value for those interested in Jesus, Christology, the "historical Jesus," as well as his teachings.