Description: Hedrick explores the tension, or collision, that occurs when studying the Jesus of faith with the critical eye of historical scholarship. He outlines the nature of historical inquiry, gives a brief history of how scholars have understood Jesus, and indentifies the essential issues confronting the reader of the New Testament Gospel accounts of Jesus: discrepancies, contradictions, and the differences as well as strong similarities among different writers. Endorsements: ""For many Christians, studying the historical Jesus disrupts and challenges their comfortable faith in the divine Christ of the creeds they have repeated all their lives. According to Hedrick, such conflict can 'bring new insights, a broader understanding, and a deeper appreciation for the complementary relationship between faith and history' . . . In clear and precise prose, Hedrick asserts that the best way to understand the historical Jesus is to study the Gospels as first-century texts that present us with information about the life and death of Jesus. His book serves as an introduction to the central conflicts inherent in the contemporary study of Jesus."" -Publishers Weekly About the Contributor(s): Charles W. Hedrick is Distinguished Professor of Religion Emeritus at Missouri State University. He is also the author of Parables as Poetic Fiction and Many Things in Parables.