Books by Gerd Theissen

Should the dissimilarity between Jesus and early Christianity or between Jesus and Judaism be the central criteria for the historical Jesus? Gerd Theissen and Dagmar Winter argue that the criterion of dissimilarity does not do justice to the single most important result of more than two-hundred years of Jesus research: that the historical Jesus...

A Sociological investigation into the life of the early Church by one of the twentieth-century's leading Biblical Scholars.

The best available textbook on the historical Jesus.

A brilliant collection from the pre-eminent New Testament scholar who wrote The Shadow of the Galilean. He believes that modern sermons are indications that God is alive and getting in touch through the barriers put up by our everyday mentality.

Gerd Theissen describes the emergence of the New Testament canon out of the wide variety of early Christian literature, drawing on Max Webers discussion of the evolution of religious organizations. Theissen describes a series of phases in the life of the early Christian movement: the charismatic, the pseudepigraphic, the functional, and the canonic

Why read the Bible? Gerd Theissen uses the wisdom gained from decades of teaching Bible instruction at a state university to address questions of the Bible''s relevance in a postmodern, pluralistic society. He describes the core themes and enduring value of the biblical legacy for anyone seeking to be a well-informed, self-aware, and responsible citizen, and he commends the contributions the Bible can make to interreligious and secular conversation.