Resurrection Logic: How Jesus' First Followers Believed God Raised Him from the Dead
Death does not speak the final word. Resurrection does. Christianity stands or falls with this central confession: God raised Jesus from the dead.

Bruce Chilton investigates the Easter event of Jesus in  Resurrection Logic. He undertakes his close reading of the New Testament texts without privileging the exact nature of the resurrection, but rather begins by situating his study of the resurrection in the context of Sumerian, Egyptian, Greek, and Syrian conceptions of the afterlife. He then identifies Jewish monotheistic affirmations of bodily resurrection in the Second Temple period as the most immediate context for early Christian claims. Chilton surveys first-generation accounts of Jesus' resurrection and finds a pluriform—and even at times seemingly contradictory—range of testimony from Jesus' first followers. This diversity, as Chilton demonstrates, prompted early Christianity to interpret the resurrection traditions by means of prophecy and coordinated narrative.

In the end, Chilton points to how the differing conceptions of the ways that God governs the world produced distinct understandings—or "sciences"—of the Easter event. Each understanding contained its own internal logic, which contributed to the collective witness of the early church handed down through the canonical text. In doing so, Chilton reveals the full tapestry of perspectives held together by the common-thread confession of Jesus' ongoing life and victory over death.

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Resurrection Logic: How Jesus' First Followers Believed God Raised Him from the Dead
Death does not speak the final word. Resurrection does. Christianity stands or falls with this central confession: God raised Jesus from the dead.

Bruce Chilton investigates the Easter event of Jesus in  Resurrection Logic. He undertakes his close reading of the New Testament texts without privileging the exact nature of the resurrection, but rather begins by situating his study of the resurrection in the context of Sumerian, Egyptian, Greek, and Syrian conceptions of the afterlife. He then identifies Jewish monotheistic affirmations of bodily resurrection in the Second Temple period as the most immediate context for early Christian claims. Chilton surveys first-generation accounts of Jesus' resurrection and finds a pluriform—and even at times seemingly contradictory—range of testimony from Jesus' first followers. This diversity, as Chilton demonstrates, prompted early Christianity to interpret the resurrection traditions by means of prophecy and coordinated narrative.

In the end, Chilton points to how the differing conceptions of the ways that God governs the world produced distinct understandings—or "sciences"—of the Easter event. Each understanding contained its own internal logic, which contributed to the collective witness of the early church handed down through the canonical text. In doing so, Chilton reveals the full tapestry of perspectives held together by the common-thread confession of Jesus' ongoing life and victory over death.

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Resurrection Logic: How Jesus' First Followers Believed God Raised Him from the Dead

Resurrection Logic: How Jesus' First Followers Believed God Raised Him from the Dead

by Bruce D. Chilton
Resurrection Logic: How Jesus' First Followers Believed God Raised Him from the Dead

Resurrection Logic: How Jesus' First Followers Believed God Raised Him from the Dead

by Bruce D. Chilton

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Overview

Death does not speak the final word. Resurrection does. Christianity stands or falls with this central confession: God raised Jesus from the dead.

Bruce Chilton investigates the Easter event of Jesus in  Resurrection Logic. He undertakes his close reading of the New Testament texts without privileging the exact nature of the resurrection, but rather begins by situating his study of the resurrection in the context of Sumerian, Egyptian, Greek, and Syrian conceptions of the afterlife. He then identifies Jewish monotheistic affirmations of bodily resurrection in the Second Temple period as the most immediate context for early Christian claims. Chilton surveys first-generation accounts of Jesus' resurrection and finds a pluriform—and even at times seemingly contradictory—range of testimony from Jesus' first followers. This diversity, as Chilton demonstrates, prompted early Christianity to interpret the resurrection traditions by means of prophecy and coordinated narrative.

In the end, Chilton points to how the differing conceptions of the ways that God governs the world produced distinct understandings—or "sciences"—of the Easter event. Each understanding contained its own internal logic, which contributed to the collective witness of the early church handed down through the canonical text. In doing so, Chilton reveals the full tapestry of perspectives held together by the common-thread confession of Jesus' ongoing life and victory over death.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781481310673
Publisher: Baylor University Press
Publication date: 09/01/2019
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 319
File size: 3 MB

About the Author

Bruce D. Chilton is Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Philosophy and Religion in the Department of Religion and Executive Director of The Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard College. He is also the author of Visions of the Apocalypse: Receptions of John's Revelation in Western Imagination, co-author of The Targums: A Critical Introduction, and co-editor of In Quest of the Historical Pharisees.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Part One: Crucibles of Hope
1. Resurrection and Immortality before Jesus
2. Israel's Revolution of Hope
3. Bodies Raised in Israel's Vindication
Part Two: Catalyst of Transformation
4. Paul on How Jesus "Was Seen"
5. Seen "by Kêpha'," Then "by the Twelve"
6. Seen "by More Than Five Hundred," Then "by James"
7. Seen by "All the Apostles"
Part Three: Reasoning with the Resurrection
8. After Paul, beyond the Tomb
9. Resurrection, History, and Realization
Conclusion

What People are Saying About This

Alan Avery-Peck

Resurrection Logic is a study that will be required reading not only for audiences interested in the specific question of the science of resurrection among Jesus' disciples but for anyone who wants to understand the evolutionary processes through which the thinking of Jesus' earliest followers developed—both in the period of the New Testament and in the centuries following— into systems of theology, and scholarship on theology.

Bernhard Lang

Resurrection Logic is a remarkable work of scholarship—original, enlightening, and saturated with spiritual insight.

Claudia Setzer

Chilton is an able guide, showing that how early followers came to believe in Jesus' resurrection reveals deep changes in ideas about cosmology, the nature of being human, and their experience of reality. So, too, can this book challenge contemporary readers to make richer sense of their own thinking about life, death, and belief.

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