Table of Contents
Introduction|xi
Chapter 1 The Existential Context 1
Section 1 Existential History 1
Section 2 The Existential Gospels 5
Section 3 Unexistential Gospel Analysis 7
Chapter 2 The Method of History 13
Section 1 An Instructive Example 13
Section 2 The Historical Critical Method 17
Section 3 Rejection of the Supernatural 18
Section 4 Empirical Fact and the Supernatural 26
Chapter 3 Literary Criticism 33
Section 1 Existential Abstraction 33
Section 2 Literary Criticism and the Gospels 35
Section 3 Intrinsic Limits to Literary Criticism 40
Section 4 Examples of the Method 46
Chapter 4 External Historical Evidence 57
Section 1 Matters of Principle 57
Section 2 Summary of the Gospel Evidence 64
Chapter 5 Historical Answers 71
Section 1 Church Documents 71
Section 2 A Compelling Theory 75
Conclusion: Tradition Revived 83
Appendix: Home on Evidence for the Gospels 87
Bibliography 91