JESUS, A SHORT LIFE
The historical evidence
By John Dickson. Lion. 158 pages. £6.99
ISBN 978 0 745 955 780
This is an accessible book, even for those with little background of studying history.
At the outset Dickson states his intention only to affirm as history ‘those things that the historical critical method can reliably establish and that the consensus of scholars affirms’ (p.14). These things include when and where Jesus lived, his fame as teacher and healer, his preaching about the kingdom of God and warnings of God’s judgment, his rejection by the priestly elite who handed him over to Pontius Pilate, his crucifixion, the fact that numerous people insisted that they saw him alive shortly after his death and that these people established communities that sought to extend his kingdom. In the epilogue, Dickson traces the connections between the historical Jesus and early Christian practice.
People hoping for a book that dogmatically affirms every aspect of biblical teaching will be disappointed, for Dickson acknowledges that ‘history cannot prove Christianity or convince anyone to worship the crucified and risen Jesus’ (p.126). However, Dickson, is equally robust in dealing with wholesale rejection of miracles and the resurrection. He asserts that ‘the dogmatic rejection of miracles has little to do with evidence and a lot to do with existing assumptions about what is possible in the universe’ (p.82).
In our day, when Christian viewpoints are often marginalised or treated as intellectually inferior, it is encouraging to read a book which concludes that history ‘demonstrates that the story at the heart of the Gospels is neither a myth nor a fraud, but a broadly credible account of a first-century life’ (p.129).
Lois Collier,
pastor’s wife, Great Ellingham Reformed Baptist Church, Norfolk
