The Resurrection of Jesus: Apologetics, Polemics, History

by Dale C. Allison, Jr.

Overview

The earliest traditions around the narrative of Jesus' resurrection are considered in this landmark work by Dale C. Allison, Jr, drawing together the fruits of his decades of research into this issue at the very core of Christian identity.

Allison returbans to the ancient sources and earliest traditions, charting them alongside the development of faith in the resurrection in the early church and throughout Christian history. Beginning with historical-critical methodology that examines the empty tomb narratives and early confessions, Allison moves on to consider the resurrection in parallel with other traditions and stories, including Tibetan accounts of saintly figures being assumed into the light, in the chapter “Rainbow Body”.

Finally, Allison considers what might be said by way of results or conclusions on the topic of resurrection, offering perspectives from both apologetic and sceptical viewpoints. In his final section of “modest results” he considers scholarly approaches to the resurrection in light of human experience, adding fresh nuance to a debate that has often been characterised in overly simplistic terms of “it happened” or “it didn't”.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780567697561
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/08/2021
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 9.55(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Dale C. Allison, Jr., is the Richard J. Dearborn Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary, USA, and the author of many books, including Constructing Jesus: Memory, Imagination, and History and the International Critical Commentary on James.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Part I Setting the Stage 1

1 Overture 3

2 Options 8

Part II Historical-Critical Studies 23

3 Formulae and Confessions 25

4 Appearances and Christophanies 46

5 The Story of the Tomb: Friday 94

6 The Story of the Tomb: Sunday 116

7 Resurrected Holy Ones? 167

8 Rudolf Pesch Redivivus? 183

Part III Thinking with Parallels 207

9 Apparitions: Characteristics and Correlations 209

10 Visions: Protests and Proposals 236

11 Enduring Bonds 262

12 Rainbow Body 272

13 Cessationism and Seeing Jesus 286

14 Zeitoun and Seeing Mary 294

Part IV Analysis and Reflections 301

15 Some Tenuous Arguments: Apologetical 303

16 Some Tenuous Arguments: Skeptical 323

17 Inferences and Competing Stones 336

18 Overreach and Modest Results 353

Coda 364

Index of References 366

Index of Authors 385

Index of Subjects 400

Editorial Reviews

The Resurrection of Jesus is a book which will probably become standard reading for everyone interested in the great challenge of studying the events of Easter from a historical viewpoint.” —The Heythrop Jourbanal

“One of the greatest strengths of this book is Allison's willingness, time and again, to take seriously the reality of religious experience ... [A] masterful book” —Biblica

“This is the best book on the historical and exegetical problems surrounding the resurrection that I know of. Nowhere else will one be informed by such comprehensive, discriminating, and fair-minded judgment regarding the exegetical and historical discussion of Jesus' resurrection. I have learned much from this great book.” —Gerd Theissen, Professor Emeritus of New Testament Studies, University of Heidelberg, Germany

“This book is the product of the deep and wide reflections of a preeminent scholar. Allison is refreshingly transparent and honest. Some will accuse him of being too pessimistic. Others will charge him with not being skeptical enough. If he is guilty of either, he cannot be faulted for accepting easy answers or of neglecting any arguments. Although I remain persuaded that historical inquiry can yield greater confidence pertaining to what happened to Jesus after his death than Allison allows, this volume is a fair-minded assessment of the data and is scholarship at the highest level.” —Michael R. Licona, Associate Professor of Theology, Houston Baptist University, USA

“This is the most interesting and illuminating piece of writing on the resurrection of Jesus that I have ever read.” —Joel Marcus, Professor Emeritus of New Testament & Christian Origins, Duke Divinity School, USA

“This is a book of massive erudition around the resurrection, the real events that may well lie behind it, and how to read its popular New Testament residues and cross-cultural parallels. Allison engages the full power and depth of contemporary biblical criticism to show that the scriptural accounts are relatively thin but nevertheless intriguing documents for the responsible historian and can reasonably be read faithfully or skeptically. The originality, even genius, of the book lies in how he then turbans to other independent literatures to “think in parallels,” playing, for example, well-documented Marian apparitions and angelic, bereavement, and near-death contacts off the early New Testament accounts or the Buddhist rainbow body off the empty tomb, always with a double refusal to fall into either easy debunking reduction or naïve literalist belief. The result is a shocking book that troubles one's certainty, whatever that certainty happens to be, and advances a profound humility before one of the most important mysteries of the history of religions. It turbans out that the questions of “what really happened” or, more basic still, “what a body is” are much more complicated than is normally thought or believed.” —Jeffrey J. Kripal, Associate Dean of the School of Humanities and J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Philosophy and Religious Thought, Rice University, USA

“For anyone who wants to wrestle seriously with what to think about Jesus of Nazareth and with the history of scholarship on this matter, the writings of Dale Allison offer more food for thought, from more angles of vision, than any other recent author I know of. The Resurrection of Jesus, now venturing to bring his expertise to bear on the standard arguments of Christian apologetics and counter-apologetics, will again be an indispensable aid to those who, from within a faith perspective or in search of one, find themselves in pursuit of genuine inquiry.” —Stephen Wykstra, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, Calvin College, USA

From the Publisher