The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Written by Paul Avis (ed.) Reviewed By Roy Kearsley

It seems to be a peccadillo of modern biblical studies that many scholars have an imagination problem. When it is out of place and unnecessary it runs wild; when a little of it is genuinely needed it is scarce. A little imagination, for instance, can reconcile the Gospel accounts of the women at the tomb. According to Mark’s abrupt ending the women were so afraid they said nothing to anyone. According to Matthew they told the apostles. It is possibly quite simple: fear and awe immediately inhibited, but as realization grew the women spoke out. If Mark’s account had been longer we might have learnt this from him (in any case, if they did not speak eventually, how did the writer of Mark claim to know?). This little human possibility, even as mere possibility, however, seems not to have entered the grave heads of scholars seemingly dedicated to the exciting discovery of insoluable problems. On the other hand, reconstructions, usually conflicting with each other, offer ‘imaginative’ but unlikely and unsupported claims for late ‘empty tomb’ additions to the resurrection narratives. Some of these unconvincing accounts have found their way into this book. Fortunately, with such a distinguished and able list of contributors, no essay is a waste of reading time and together they yield useful information about the state of debate on the resurrection of Jesus.

The editor, Paul Avis, showed genius in placing the essay by Adrian Thatcher at the end of the collection: in a few swift strokes it subtly undermines a good number of the papers that precede it, including the editor’s own. As a bonus one has the pleasure of reading someone called Thatcher challenge the modern tendency to ‘take for granted that capitalism and competition are natural states’. But back to theology: Thatcher’s contribution, thankfully, leads the discussion away from compulsive scepticism to a constructive, though thoroughly critical, examination of the way in which we ‘know’. Every NT scholar should take full account of his argument before lamely electing to fall in line behind Bultmann. Unfortunately, some of the papers in this collection pay too reverent homage to the great scholar and, tacitly, to his absurd and logic-free notion that no-one who uses electricity can believe in such things as the resurrection. Thatcher probes those tired old 1950s assumptions and dispatches them courteously and without mercy. On the positive side he reinstates an imagining and receptive approach to knowledge. But this is where we came in.

Besides the final essay, thoughtful contributions appear from Christopher Rowland on interpreting the resurrection and Sarah Coakley on the resurrection as ‘historical’ event. The latter seems to decide too easily on where the burden of proof in the resurrection debate lies. Richard Bauckham and Brian Hebblethwaite are the able conservative contributors in the list, but their themes (‘The Resurrection of Jesus and the Early Christian Faith in God’ and ‘The Resurrection and the Incarnation’ respectively) do not really connect with the problems raised by earlier contributors. All in all, a mix of good, bad and indifferent: but probably none of it without influence.


Roy Kearsley

Glasgow Bible College