Revolutionary Contexts for the Quest: Jesus in the Rhetoric and Methods of Early Modern Intellectual History

This article contributes to a new perspective on the historical Jesus in early modern intellectual history. This perspective looks beyond German and academic scholarship, and takes account of a plurality of religious, social, and political contexts. Having outlined avenues of research which are cons...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal for the study of the historical Jesus
Main Author: Birch, Jonathan C. P. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill [2019]
In: Journal for the study of the historical Jesus
Further subjects:B Quakers
B More
B d'Holbach
B Enlightenment
B Reimarus
B Nayler
B Priestley
B Historical Jesus
B Revolution
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:This article contributes to a new perspective on the historical Jesus in early modern intellectual history. This perspective looks beyond German and academic scholarship, and takes account of a plurality of religious, social, and political contexts. Having outlined avenues of research which are consistent with this approach, I focus on radicalised socio-political contexts for the emergence of ‘history' as a category of analysis for Jesus. Two contexts will be discussed: the late eighteenth century, with reference to Joseph Priestley, Baron d'Holbach, and their associations with the French Revolution; and the interregnum period in seventeenth-century Britain, with reference to early Quaker controversies and the apologetic work of Henry More. I identify ideas about Jesus in those contexts which have echoed in subsequent scholarship, while challenging the notion that there is a compelling association between sympathetic historical conceptions of Jesus (as opposed to theological) and a tendency towards radical and revolutionary politics.
ISSN:1745-5197
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal for the study of the historical Jesus
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/17455197-01701005