Performing ‘The Duty of Discontent’ in Dialogue with Christian Strecker: A Plea for Cross-Cultural Historical Jesus Research

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-299
Author(s):  
Pieter F. Craffert
Keyword(s):  
Analytical Model ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
Historical Criticism ◽  
Alternative Framework ◽  
Historical Figure

This article is a response to the critical evaluation by Christian Strecker of my book, The Life of a Galilean Shaman: Jesus of Nazareth in Anthropological- Historical Perspective (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2008; hereafter LGS). Anthropological historiography is set as an alternative framework to historical criticism for the discussion about Jesus as an historical figure. The dialogue with Strecker follows the three main categories of his evaluation; namely, the feasibility of a new historiographical paradigm for historical Jesus research, the shamanic complex as a cross-cultural analytical model and the testing of the shamanic hypothesis against the Gospel traditions.

scholarly journals Verby objektivisme en relativisme: Op weg na nuwe fondamente vir historiese Jesus-studies

2004 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Riaan Ingram
Keyword(s):  
Historical Jesus ◽  
Historical Criticism ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Historical Figure ◽  
New Foundations ◽  
Western Civilisation

Beyond objectivism and relativism: Towards new foundations for historical Jesus studiesIn light of the contemporary epistemological discussion with regard to historical Jesus-studies and historiography in general, recent scholarship proposes that historical criticism and creativity should be combined to form a contemporary relevant picture of Jesus as historical figure. Some philosophical insights produced during the last century also suggest that western civilisation has become preoccupied with the essence of things and has forgotten that people are essentially ethical beings in need of wisdom. This tendency is also revealed in the recent preoccupation with the “truth” regarding Jesus’ life. In this article these issues are elaborated upon in discussion with especially Heidegger, Bernstein and Gadamer. Eventually the insights gained by this discussion are illustrated with regard to historical Jesus studies.

The Miracles of an Eschatological Prophet

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 131-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Eve
Keyword(s):  
New Age ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
Minimal Impact ◽  
Central Aspect ◽  
Historical Figure ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Holy Man

While it has not been a central aspect of his work on the historical Jesus, E.P. Sanders has contributed to the understanding of Jesus’ miracles. In Jesus and Judaism, Sanders argued that Jesus was an eschatological prophet and maintains that he certainly healed people in ways that his contemporaries regarded as miraculous, but that his miracles were not signs of the end, and cannot be used to determine what type of figure he was. The fuller treatment of miracles in the later The Historical Figure of Jesus emphasizes the exorcisms and dismisses the nature miracles as having made minimal impact, leading Sanders to conclude that Jesus’ miracles were not as spectacular as the Gospels suggest, and that they probably led his contemporaries to view Jesus as a holy man like Honi the Circle-Drawer, although Jesus himself probably understood his miracles as signs of the imminent arrival of the new age, and his disciples may have come to see them as a defeat of evil powers and as a legitimation of Jesus’ claims. After summarizing Sanders’s arguments this article goes on to suggest how some of their foundations may be secured while also suggesting that the case for associating Jesus’ miracles with his role as an eschatological prophet may be stronger than Sanders allowed. It then concludes by indicating how Sanders’s account of the role of Jesus’ miracles might be further rounded out first by exploring their possible symbolism (as Sanders does with the Temple incident) and second through various social-scientific approaches.

‘The Duty of Discontent’: Some Remarks on Pieter F. Craffert’s The Life of a Galilean Shaman: Jesus of Nazareth in Anthropological-Historical Perspective

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-280
Author(s):  
Christian Strecker
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
Critical Scholarship ◽  
Western Discourse ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Scholarly Attention

This essay commends Pieter Craffert’s book “The Life of a Galilean shaman” as an important contribution in the field of Jesus studies. At the same time it reveals that Crafferts attempt to identify Jesus as a Galilean shaman is problematic, particularly considering the enigmatic nature of the category “shaman.” Western discourse on shamanism tends to contain an unwelcome mix of exoticism, alienation, and fascination; transferring this model to the life of Jesus is in danger of applying anachronistic and ethnocentric notions to the historical Jesus, not to mention the difficulties involved in verifying the supposed treatment of shamanic ASC-experiences in the New Testament texts. Although Crafferts new methodological approach of “anthropological historiography”, independent of the shamanism thesis, deserves scholarly attention, his employment of it shows an all too rigid, and ultimately counterproductive, rejection of classic historical-critical scholarship.

1960s Africa in Historical Perspective

2011 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Talton
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Analytical Model ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
African Descent ◽  
Political Corruption ◽  
National Politics ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Economic Underdevelopment ◽  
The 1960S

Scholars and other commentators have largely characterized the histories of African nations in terms of failed states, economic underdevelopment, political corruption, and civil war. This introduction and the articles that follow demonstrate the utility of breaking out of the mold of measuring African “successes” and “failures” in terms of national politics and economics, without due consideration of local political histories, popular culture, and the arts, which offer a dramatically different view of Africa’s and Africans’ influences and success within the continent and on the global stage. Toward that end, this introductory essay advocates mitigating the standard analytical model through close studies of relationships between Africans and people of African descent in which politics and economic “development” are placed alongside the arts, popular culture, and sports, with a particular emphasis on the critical decade of the 1960s as central to shaping the course of “postcolonial” African histories.

The Ascetic Jesus

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Joseph
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
First Century ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
Future Work

AbstractNew Testament scholars have long been divided on the question of Jesus' asceticism. This study will argue that the historical Jesus should be identified as a first-century Jewish ascetic. Here, asceticism is conceptualized as a sociological, cross-cultural and comparative lens through which a range of behaviors can be understood. Consequently, by comparing the early Jesus tradition with other contemporary manifestations of ascetic practice in antiquity, this study will illustrate that an ascetic model for the historical Jesus is not only compatible with(in) first-century Judaism but has the explanatory power to reconcile conflicting portraits of Jesus and advance a theoretical lens through which additional future work on the historical Jesus can be conducted.

Jesus as his Friends Remembered Him

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 224-244
Author(s):  
Rafael Rodríguez
Keyword(s):  
Historical Jesus ◽  
Secondary Material ◽  
Historical Figure

Despite considerable variation in its details, historical Jesus scholarship has largely depended on refining and employing the criteria of authenticity in order to differentiate authentic from secondary material in the Jesus tradition. Dale Allison has expressed doubts concerning the criteria and their usefulness for producing knowledge of the historical figure of Jesus. His recent volume, Constructing Jesus, sets out to explore a different route for discussing the historical Jesus, one that accounts for recent psychological and sociological discussions of memory. This essay briefly describes the new shape of historical Jesus scholarship and then summarizes Allison’s central arguments and asks some questions raised by those arguments.

scholarly journals Um bispo no Concílio Vaticano II. Dom Geraldo de Proença Sigaud e o Coetus Internationalis Patrum

2019 ◽  
Vol 71 (282) ◽  
pp. 390
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Coppe Caldeira
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Historical Figure ◽  
The World ◽  
The Church

O antigo arcebispo de Diamantina, Dom Geraldo de Proença Sigaud (1909-1999), foi uma importante e controversa figura histórica da Igreja brasileira contemporânea. De fato, Sigaud teve um papel marcante nas polêmicas que permeavam a Igreja dos anos 1930 até 1980. Além do mais, o arcebispo foi um dos mais importantes agentes catalisadores da minoria no Concílio Vaticano II (1962- 1965), congregando em torno de si bispos de tendências conservadoras de todo o mundo a fim de bloquear os impulsos de reforma que vinham se estabelecendo desde o primeiro período conciliar. Dessa forma, a partir de um olhar histórico, o presente artigo tem como objetivo apresentar a atuação de D. Sigaud no Vaticano II, suas relações com a TFP (Associação para a Defesa da Tradição, Família e Propriedade) na ocasião do Concílio e demonstrar alguns momentos da atuação do Coetus Internationalis Patrum, grupo que funda com outros bispos a fim de organizar a minoria conciliar e influenciar as determinações finais do concílio.Abstract: The late Archbishop of Diamantina, Don Geraldo de Proença Sigaud (1909-1999) was an important and controversial historical figure in the contemporary Brazilian Church. Indeed, Sigaud played a remarkable role in the polemical issues that pervaded the Church from the 1930s until 1980. Moreover, the Archbishop was one of the most important catalytic agents of the minority in the Vatican II Council (1962-1965), congregating around himself bishops with conservative tendency from all over the world in order to block the reform impetuses that were establishing themselves from the earliest conciliar period. Thus, from a historical perspective, the present article aims at presenting D. Sigaud’s actions at the Vatican II, his relations with the TFP (Association for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property) at the time of the Council and to show some moments in the acting of the Coetus Internationalis Patrum, a group that Sigaud founded with other bishops in order to organize the Council’s minority and influence its final decisions.

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