46 year old “news” makes front page of “The Age”!

Although every news story that I have read on the matter actually acknowledges that the Second Vatican Council – in 1965 already! – had already said exactly the same thing, the news outlets are in a tither about Volume 2 of Pope Benedict’s “Jesus of Nazareth” in which Pope Benedict repeats what has only been a commonplace among New Testament scholarship in the last 50 years: “The Jews” are not to blame for the death of Jesus.

Barney Zwartz’s version of the story actually made front page in The Age this morning.

Oh well, at least for once the message is on target, and it’s a positive news story, and it’s good publicity for one of the most significant works on Jesus to have come out in the last 50 years. “But David, but David”, I hear you say, “What about John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg?” Yeah, what about them? Dis guy’s da Pope, and when it comes to being conversant with the tradition of the 20th Century “Quest for the Historical Jesus”, he’s up there with the best of them. Barney writes:

According to the publisher Ignatius Press, volume two looks at many controversial questions, including whether Jesus was a political revolutionary, what he taught about the end of the world, how he interpreted his own death, whether he really rose from the dead and what the early Christians believed about his second coming.

That list is a pretty good summary of what is on the scholarly “Jesus Agenda” today. If I were making a recommendation to someone who was wanting to know what to read about Jesus today, I would say the two authors who have most reliably answered these questions: N.T. Wright and Joseph Ratzinger.

About Schütz

I am a PhD candidate & sessional academic at Australian Catholic University in Melbourne, Australia. After almost 10 years in ministry as a Lutheran pastor, I was received into the Catholic Church in 2003. I worked for the Archdiocese of Melbourne for 18 years in Ecumenism and Interfaith Relations. I have been editor of Gesher for the Council of Christians & Jews and am guest editor of the historical journal “Footprints”. I have a passion for pilgrimage and pioneered the MacKillop Woods Way.
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5 Responses to 46 year old “news” makes front page of “The Age”!

  1. Peter says:

    The next article Barney Swartz pens that is actually worth reading will the first.

  2. Dan says:

    “But David, but David”
    mmm now that sounds familiar… Oh yea! Fr Z often uses a similar phrase on his blog:
    “But Father, but Father” usually followed by a question.
    I must say it is an effective technique that I’m sure is not unique to Fr Z, but is that where you got the idea from?

  3. Matthias says:

    Rembrandt said the same thing well before Vatican II in his painting THE RAISING OF THE CROSS. placing himself-a Dutchman -amongst the group who were pulling the Cross up . He is looking directly out of the picture as if to say “It was my sins that put Him here”.

  4. Gareth says:

    But any of this sort of rhetoric coming from the Pope’s (which is dubious anyway as Popes should NOT write personal books) is insufficient without stating that the Catholic Church is God’s chosen people and the new Isreal.

    • Schütz says:

      “Popes should NOT write personal books”

      Your opinion, Gareth. Nothing in Canon Law to say they can’t. Someone should have told Gregory the Great…

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