A Renaissance in Jesus Studies

Abstract

“The picture of Jesus as a charismatic or ‘holy man’ vividly in touch with what the texts call ‘Spirit’ radically challenges the flattened sense of reality pervading the modern worldview and much of the mainline church. … Similarly, the picture of Jesus as a subversive sage undermining his culture's conventional assumptions, as a prophet calling it to change its historical direction, and as a revitalization movement founder seeking to create an alternative culture, all point to a deep involvement in the life of history.”

Archetypal Orientations of Mind in Historical Jesus Thought

“…"As a charismatic who was also a subversive sage, prophet, and renewal movement founder, Jesus sought a transformation in the historical shape and direction of his social world. (Borg, 1988: 291/292) "He was not teacher, not a casuist; He was an imperious ruler. It was because He was so in His inmost being that He could think of Himself as the Son of Man.…”