Get Your Hands On The Modern Search For The Real Jesus: An Introductory Survey Of The Historical Roots Of Gospel Criticism Illustrated By Robert B. Strimple Published As EPub

so despite short length you will have to lock in, Excellent summary of schools of gospel criticism that have led to all sorts of common objections and ways of interpreting the gospels we hear of today, Good evangelical response Rhoads brings the reader through how one is to read Mark as a narrative with all the classic literary features/techniques of irony, repetition, foreshadowing, narrator types, etc.
The early section of the book serves as a nice refresher to high school literature class and has some value in informing one how to read Mark and determine the emphases of the writer of Mark by looking at his literary techniques.
However, what value Rhoads brings to reading Mark ends here, His ensuing interpretation of Mark as determined through using literary techniques commonly used in interpreting fiction works causes Rhoads to reject a divine Jesus and to adopt a Jesus who is merely man.
Inevitably, as this ancient heresy as done for two thousand years, the Gospel Jesus proclaims becomes

a moral call to all who hear to follow Jesus and model his way of life.
A far cry from the true Gospel preached throughout the whole Bible where Jesus, the son of God, offers his life as “a ransom for many” Mk:and all who place their faith in Christ and His finished substitutionary work are freely offered salvation.
Good information, but not an entertaining read, A bit dry. The author could have done more to summarize zoom out, if you will every once and awhile rather than trudging on with his study of various scholars, For example, he didnt really take time to summarize what “redaction” or “form” criticism even was until page,

Also, just fyi, this book only takes you up to the postWWII postBultmann stage of literary criticism, Not much is said for postmodern, Marxist, or feminist scholarship developed since thes,

Lastly, keep in mind that this is intended to be a historical survey, not a polemic, The author is obviously reformed and disagrees with this stuff, but he largely stays out of argumentation against it, Thats not a bad thing, just go somewhere else for that,

Read for the introduction to Dr, Krugers Gospels class at RTS Charlotte, fall, How do you write a book about German theologians and Gospel Criticism that stirs the soul I'm not sure, but this one did a good job of at least being brief and holding my attention.
After listening to some lectures by Michael Kruger on the topic, my pump was primed to read this book, So many ideas about Jesus that come from the lips of modern people come from the ideas of these German theologians, What did they believe about the historicity of Jesus and His message, as presented in the Gospels This brief survey walks you through, hitting the high points and doing a good job of showing us the importance of tracing their lines of thought.
It was nice to hear the author get stirred up in response to some of the falsehoods that are told in the name of "historical criticism, " I enjoyed it, and was grateful for its brevity and conciseness,
It's an excellent, concise survey of the development of Gospel criticism with an overview of significant figures in the history and observation of the evolution of gospel criticism through stages of form, source, and reduction criticisms.
Great summaries of the various Gospel critics and the traditions and subtraditions that spun off from them, Strimple is a great scholar and his acumen shines through in this work, Of course, it probably needs to be updated at this point, As far as I can tell, this is a good overview of Gospel criticism from the mids up to thes, with both appreciation and criticism from an evangelical perspective.
Strimple seems careful to present the positions of gospel critics in their strongest and most nuanced forms within the constraints of a short book, A brief and basic introduction to biblicalcriticism, exposing views of German liberal theologians and then answering their objections, Mustread book for all seminary students, A decent if somewhat bland and hostile introduction to Gospels criticism, Unfortunately, this book is likely to be used in a classroom to convince students just to avoid critical questions, A broad overview of the history of Gospel Criticism, A good introductory on the topic, But the purpose of the book is not to formally offer a rebuttal, First time reading about gospel criticisms amp good book to start but still pretty overwhelming This was ok, not great, Beingyears old, it's dated and does not cover important movements in the pastdecades, It's fine for historical survey of past movements, His discussion on Bultmann and his followers is perhaps the best part of the book, Good summary of the major figures and developments of the history of Gospel criticism from the Enlightenment to today from a Reformed Presbyterian perspective, Good survey! Excellent little summary on how modern gospel criticism has come to be what it is today, An excellent and wellwritten summary of the criticism of modern scholarship in relation to the Gospels, and in Synecdoche, the Scripture in general, A fantastic read that will also passively introduce the reader to modern philosophy, linguistics, and interpretation, A basic introduction to the confusing world of liberal New Testament criticism, Short but adequate. In brief, the scholars contradict each other in their unbelief and gut the gospel of its power, For a book of onlypages, this is a remarkable treatment, Strimple surveys all the influential figures in gospel criticism, and provide short but cogent critiques of their positions, Very helpful for orienting one to the field of gospel studies from an evangelical perspective, Dry, but helpful and clear, Could be revised a bit more to cut out certain superfluous sections, Otherwise, accomplishes its aim of providing a short survey of recent critical approaches to the New Testament, Just heard about it Scholarly work covering the different way theologians conservative and liberal have interpreted who Jesus is, Helpful introduction to gospel criticism, . . how is it that we've gotten to a place where most universities deny much of the reliability of the gospel narratives Well, it starts with a series of postenlightenment German theologians in theth century.
Strimple traces their ideas and writings and sheds better light on what will eventually lead to liberalism in theological traditions, Have you ever heard the argument that the stories about Jesus are just a myth That they never really happened Or that Jesus didn't really think he was the Messiah How about seminaries today that deny the resurrection This book traces out some of those theological origins.


Ideas are dangerous, Christianity is a battle for the mind, . .

did not read last chapter A helpful book on a topic that I find inevitably both frustrating and dull, I can't say I loved reading it, but I can say it was worthwhile, Good, but not great. It accomplishes its stated purpose, which is a flyby overview, so I guess that counts for something, Helpful in certain areas, so long as the reader understands that this is an introduction, it is not a rebuttal, and that the author does not describe every facet of Synoptic criticism.
Strimple is good at summarizing certain individuals and their contributions to the field of criticism, such as Bultmann or von Harnack, and is versed in their works he cites from them regularly.
The writing is dry, one should expect that from a book on higher criticism, form criticism, redaction criticism, etc, and can often be hard to follow due to the nature of the discipline, This is a massive discipline that defined New Testament studies from the earlys to the mids it is hard to summarize all of that history inpages, It's a helpful introduction, but don't expect too much from it, As a conservative, I'd recommend taking this book, realize that few people hold many of these views anymore, understand challenges to the Synoptics prior to thest century, and answer them as others such as Warfield or Machen or Ridderbos answered them.
I'd recommend to seminary students, particularly students of the New Testament, or to those interested in the discipline fairwarning, it is a massive discipline with many rabbit trails to go down.
Having little to no understanding about the history of Gospel criticism, this book introduced a lot of names and their ideas about the gospels,

Good for its kind, but I just dont enjoy reading much of its kind, Really good if it was the kind of book you give four, This book examines the claims and assumptions of critical scholars in this concise survey of the historical roots of Gospels criticism from Reimarus to Bultmann and beyond, .