Critical reviews of the books by Barbara Thiering, A.N. Wilson and Bishop Spong.

Wright's book does two things: (1) it condenses his own understanding of who Jesus is into something actually readable by a lay-person (the more thorough books are Jesus and the Victory of God and The Resurrection of the Son of God, both multi-hundred page books; there is also a somewhat shorter book called The Challenge of Jesus) and (2) it critiques three recent attempted reconstructions of the historical Jesus - which turns his book into something of an extended review of three other books (by A. N. Wilson, Barbara Theiring, and John Shelby Spong).

In Wright's typically whimsical prose, his critique is all at once charming, humorous, and scathing! Putting the two elements of the book together, it turns into a fairly good defense of a more "traditional" portrait of Jesus (i.e. affirming his messianic identity and bodily resurrection).

Incidentally, while I read a lot of Wright, I don't agree with him on multiple fronts, including his general take on Paul. But I have few qualms with this book. If you're interested in reading something on "the historical Jesus," this isn't a bad place to start. ( )