Jesus as Man Myth and Metaphor: Beyond the Jesus of History Debate

Current New Testament scholarship has done much to advance knowledge of Jesuss authentic words and message. The works of Crossan Borg Vermes Mack and many others attest to this movement. In this process however the Christ of the Gospels or the so-called Christ of faith has been caught in the crosshairs forcing Christianity to reflect anew on the churchs interpretation of his life and place in history. Has the churchs dogma overreached the facts of Jesuss life? Farleys book addresses these issues and offers a feasible and illuminating context within which to reexamine Jesuss life and significance for modern humankind. His book probes the boundaries of Jesus as a historical person (as a man) as a figure of mythical proportions and as a metaphor for todays Christian sense of wholeness. Along the way Farley incorporates the insights of Carl Jung Joseph Campbell and Paul Tillich to demonstrate the ways that psychology mythology and symbolism contribute to an appreciation of Jesus that moves beyond the debate of Jesuss historical status alone. Benjamin W. Farley is Younts Professor Emeritus of Bible Religion and Philosophy at Erskine College in Due West South Carolina. He is the author of In Praise of Virtue and The Providence of God. Farley has also translated John Calvins sermons and others of Calvins works. In his spare time he writes fiction.