Inventing Christic Jesuses, Volume 1

Inventing Christic Jesuses is the first comprehensive proposal for how revisionist theology can deploy historical Jesus research in a methodologically sophisticated way. Rejecting positions that insulate theology from Jesus research, the proposal sets out warrants and rules for a quested Christology in dialogue with an analysis of the conduct of historians of Jesus from the period of the Third Quest (c. 1980-2010).
The volume Method analyzes for theology the methods and values of historical research on Jesus. It argues that the methodic construction of historical images of Jesus in conversation with sources is simultaneously a retrojective activity of value production. First, in defining the terms of the inquiry, Wilson locates a middle ground between hostility to questing and a too-ready application of historical results to Christology. He then identifies rules and warrants for the deployment of Jesus research in theology and reconstructs the notion of the retrojection of value in the production of a historical Jesus. The volume ends with a case study of retrojective Jesus production, an analysis and assessment of the new notion that Jesus is a sage in the tradition of wisdom.

""A challenging yet reassuring invitation for theologians and thinking Christians generally to prosper in open but critical engagement with the recent quests for the historical Jesus. This is a splendid work, at once wide-ranging, meticulous, practical in its guidance, and keenly sensitive to both the insights and the blunders attending every twist and turn along this 'new avenue' for Christology.""
--Terence J. Martin, Professor, Indiana University

""Inventing Christic Jesuses is a fascinating and erudite book. Charles Wilson proposes a 'method' for how theologians ought to use research on Jesus in advancing current Christology. Additionally, Wilson isolates the danger of 'retrojecting' onto Jesus, inventing Christ. This danger is not easily avoided. Wilson's development of a method for theology is thereby essential for Christological reflection. I recommend this book to anyone who cares about how to think of Jesus as the Christ.""
--William Schweiker, Professor, The University of Chicago Divinity School


""Wilson's work is the culmination of a lifetime's reflection on and teaching about the Jesus question. For decades, his colleagues and students have benefited immensely from his enormous erudition on the topic. In Wilson's view, the latest 'quest for the historical Jesus' is as much about the culture of the questers as about the Jesus of history. Here, in true Hegelian fashion, theology, history, and sociology meet as they haven't quite before in treatments of the subject. It is a joy to know that Wilson's monumental scholarship, with all its richness and with all its range, will now be made available to the wider scholarly community. We won't be able to think about Jesus and the Christ in the same way again.""
--Edmund Santurri, Professor, St. Olaf College

Charles A. Wilson is Professor of Religion at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. He is the author of Feuerbach and the Search for Otherness (1989).