Reading and Study Guide - Barr - Chapter 14 - "The Story After the Writings" -  The starred questions will be especially developed in class in questioning and/or small groups.

1. What sorts of questions did early Christians ask rather than, "What writings out to be in the Bible"? (Barr, 472-73)

2. What shaped the "orthodox" decisions about which writings should become part of the "canon"? (473-78)

3. What technological factors played a role? (472, 478)

4. a.  Which books were most controversial in the run up to the final canon? Why?   b.  How was the canonical order of books developed?

*5. What does Barr say about the nature of the gospels as stories and the convictions that the gospel writers and earliest believers held? (481-82)

*6. What are the key points Barr makes in describing a conception of history? How does he describe the work of a historian ?(483-85) Would you agree that non-natural causes are outside the "scope of historical investigation" (484)? Why or why not? What roles do both data and interpretation play in writing history?

Note: If you are interested in the philosophy of history, there is a nice brief introductory essay at http://faculty.uccb.ns.ca/areynold/paul/introessay.htm

The same site has an annotated bibliography on philosophy of history at http://faculty.uccb.ns.ca/areynold/paul/alphabib.htm

*7. Barr begins to talk specifically about the quest for the historical Jesus on 485. What does he say about the nature of the sources? What would the distinction be between the "historical Jesus" and "the Christ of Faith"? What are the presuppositions of different groups of scholars that he identifies 485-86? What differences might result in historical reconstruction depending on which of the presuppositions is adopted?

*8. What are the three "negative" criteria employed by conservative scholars (486)? Do you agree or disagree with Barr that these do little except to eliminate obvious anachronisms?

*9. What are the "positive criteria" and what is the goal and level of probability of each (486-90)?

*10.  What are the different conceptions of myth Barr identifies on 490-91?   What does Barr mean by "myth in history"? (491)  Barr writes that the Gospels "are mythic in the sense that they reveal a reality beyond the events themselves, but a reality that abides in the events. (491)."  What alternative does he offer to the older view that "regarded history and myth as mutually exclusive categories (491)". What definition of myth is he working with? What definition of history? Why does he hold that the concept of mimesis "presents a fruitful alternative to this dichotomy [between myth and history]?" Is it possible to separate the Jesus of history from the New Testament writings? Why or why not?

11. What points does Barr take from Aristotle and Frye on 491?

*12. What are the key elements of the sketch of the historical Jesus, the Jesus that can be reconstructed by historians, that might be developed using the criteria Barr outlined earlier in the chapter? Pages 492-94 Do you find the methods (criteria) and results convincing? Why or why not?

13.  What are the eight different portraits of Jesus in recent modern scholarship identified by Hurtado? (494)  Why do scholars end up with such different portraits?   (494)

14. For Barr, in what does the unity of the New Testament canon consist despite its diversity?(494-95) What is the point of the quotation from C. S. Lewis? (495)

If you are interested in following up more on the work of modern scholars, a slightly dated, but excellent overview is Mark Allan Powell, Jesus as a Figure in History:   How Modern Historians View The Man From Galilee.  Louisville: Westminster/Knox, 1998.  Large chunks of it are available on googlebooks at http://books.google.com/books?id=IJP4DRCVaUMC&pg=PA74&lpg=PA74&dq=powell+jesus+as+a+figure+in+history+outline&source=web&ots=KVBP811tYM&sig=HFsof1H4Jooy91GB3gKYu-0dSKU&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result