Psychological Analyses and the Historical Jesus: New Ways to Explore Christian Origins

Description

Since Albert Schweitzer's monumental work, nearly a century ago, psychology has been banned from Historical Jesus research. But both disciplines have advanced and it is time to review the contribution that psychology can make. Bas Van Os examines the problems which surround both the historical and the psychological study of Jesus, such as the fact that we can only work with the surviving traditions that some of his early followers left us. Following this, Van Os proposes a theoretical framework that combines sound psychological theories and critical biblical scholarship to explain how Jesus' life and religious experience impacted the beliefs of his friends and family after his death.

BAS VAN OS, M.Sc., Ph.D., is Research Fellow at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.

Van Os's book is a prodigious achievement, breaking ground simultaneously in three field: historical Jesus research, psychological biblical criticism, and early church studies...The lucid three-part structure of the book with annotated summaries at the beginning of each part and conclusions at the end of each chapter all provide welcome guidance for the reader. The usefulness of the book is enhanced by the inclusion of an extensive bibliography, an index of biblical references, and an index of authors. * Review of Biblical Literature * Impressively interacting with advanced biblical scholarship, and cognizant of the dangers in moving too easily from psychobiography to historical studies, Bas van Os presents a major contribution to Jesus Research (which as I have emphasized is not driven by theology). He agrees with Albert Schweitzer who rightly protested any psychiatric study of the historical Jesus; yet, he demonstrates how recent psychology theory helps in Jesus Research. Employing psychobiology, Bas van Os demonstrates how psychological insights can make plausible what seemed impossible. Using modern research in conversion patterns, new religious movements, and social memory he demonstrates that, within the Jesus Movement, there is continuity between Jesus and his followers. This study is well informed and will be welcome to all who realize that all methodologies can help us avoid subjectivity as we advance Jesus -- Research.James H. Charlesworth, author of The Historical Jesus. This book is a prodigious achievement, breaking ground simultaneously in three fields: historical Jesus research, psychological biblical criticism, and early church studies. With an impressive command of European and American scholarship, Bas van Os initiates us into the world between the historical Jesus and earliest Christianity with an intriguing thesis: that the effect of the former on the latter provides compelling psychological, anthropological, demographic, and sociological insight into the historical Jesus. The reader will not be able to put the book down as van Os initiates us into five disciplines new to most biblical scholars: attachment theory, rational choice theory, anthropological psychology, the psychology of coping with loss, and role theory, all of which open unexpected doors to a past that is constantly at work in the conscious and unconscious life of church and scholar. -- Wayne G. Rollins, author of Soul and Psyche. Bas van Os has given us a highly readable volume that defines the battle and picks the terrain for Jesus studies for the next century. It provides a framework for studying historical religious leaders and followers, new ways of assessing how Christianity arose and Jesus' self-consciousness developed, historical findings that illumine Paul's epistles and the gospels, and substantive information for faith and doctrine. He has taken what many of us have laboured with for decades, and cast it in a new perspective that makes it all make greater sense. -- J. Harold Ellens, editor of Psychology and the Bible I am amazed by this wonderful book. I did not expect to like it, being strongly biased against all forms of psychobiography. But Bas van Os rises far above that field's limitations and achieves a cautious and sensible study. -- Rodney Stark, author of The Rise of Christianity Psychological Analyses and the Historical Jesus by Bas Van Os is surely an interesting and provocative scholarly book ... The bibliography which he presents is truly impressive and its range is amazingly large. -- Marcin Kowalski, Institute of Biblical Studies, Poland * The Biblical Annals *