Jesus;: The classic article from RGG expanded and updated

Hans Conzelmann (1915-1989) was a German scholar who has written such important works as the Theology of St. Luke. This brief book is actually a reprint and expansion of an article ("Jesus Christus") that Conzelmann wrote for a German Protestant encyclopedia in 1959. Assuming a variant of Bultmannian form criticism, Conzelmann admits that "We no longer know the sequence of events and, above all, we cannot reconstruct an outer and inner development." Here are some representative quotations from the book: "There is no doubt that Jesus possessed the consciousness of a singular bond with God." "Jesus wished to formulate no new doctrine of God." "The founding of a church does not harmonize with Jesus' understanding of his history.... He issues no 'rule of the community.' To be sure, he calls men into his discipleship, but neither is membership in the circle of disciples a condition of salvation, nor is this circle closed through any institution whatsover or ordinances." "(H)istory cannot establish the facticity of the resurrection. It can only establish that men testified that they had seen Jesus alive after his death. In this experience they find the key for the meaning of his death." This brief book is still well worth studying, for anyone interested in the "historical" Jesus.