Reviewed Book: Steinhauser, Michael G. The man in the scarlet robe: 2000 years of searching for Jesus. Etobicoke, Ont: United Church Pub House, 1996

Heinze, Ted

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Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 22Issue 2 Essays Ecumenical and Historical Article 1311-1-1996The man in the scarlet robe: 2000 years of searchingfor JesusTed HeinzeFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationHeinze, Ted (1996) "The man in the scarlet robe: 2000 years of searching for Jesus," Consensus: Vol. 22 : Iss. 2 , Article 13.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol22/iss2/13Book Reviews 141light of rhetorical conventions and/or Jewish-Christian relations.Edith M. HumphreyAylmer, QuebecThe Man in the Scarlet Robe: Two Thousand Yearsof Searching for JesusMichael R. McAteer and Michael G. SteinhauserEtobicoke, Ont.: The United Church Publishing House, 1996xii + 172 pp. Paper“Why, in this high-tech secular age, when humans are probing the veryheavens and unlocking the secrets of DNA, do people continue to discuss,talk about, even argue about, a man who died a shameful death on aRoman cross so long ago?” Thus authors McAteer (until recently religioneditor at The Toronto Star) and Steinhauser (New Testament professorat Toronto School of Theology) pose the question this little book seeks toillumine. Pointing out that some 70,000 “biographies” of Jesus of Nazarethhave already been written, they seek here to present a summary of the“search for the historical Jesus” over the years, with particular focus onthe so-called “third quest” of the past decade, especially the work of JohnDominic Crossan, Robert Funk, and other members of The Jesus Seminar.The book is directed to the non-professional, Christian or otherwise,and surely succeeds in its authors’ intent. I’d not be surprised to see itlisted in a good many bibliographies for “New Testament Introduction”courses.In eight brightly written chapters McAteer and Steinhauser include dis-cussions of: the contradictions and problems that are evident in the canon-ical Gospels, especially as contrasted with the Pauline letters, when Jesus’nature, his self-understanding, and his expectations about the end, arestudied; the development of doctrine concerning Jesus in the early church,the political defeat of Arianism and its “heretical” view of Jesus, and themysteries involved in how the New Testament canon gained acceptance; theimportance for Jesus-research of the hypothetical “Q” document, of other“Gospels”, and of the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library; the history ofdissent concerning the orthodox, or official, view of Jesus during the renais-sance, the reformation era, the age of reason, and in the “old”, “new” and,now in North America, especially, “third quest” for the historical Jesus;the great diversity of “pictures” of Jesus among various “third questers”—and the likelihood that various agendas, such as frustration with churchofficialdom, etc., have more than a little influence on these pictures.In their last two chapters, which bring the survey closer to the dailystruggle for faith, the authors examine the quite different statements that142 Consensusthe Gospels, and Paul, make about the resurrection, and the even moredivergent interpretations of these statements that come out of the variouscurrent theological camps.What’s lacking, of course, in such a broad and brief survey, is a senseof the fire and, yes, faith, that inform both the troubling conclusions ofCrossan, Funk and others; and the strong, sometimes harsh, reactions ofmore conservative theologians. And the danger in depending upon evensuch an even-handed survey as this is that we may have already relegatedthe third-questers to history along with Reimarus, Renan, Schweizer andthe rest. That would be sad, for we surely owe it to Christians strugglingto find and hold a faith for the twenty-first century, to let our preachingand teaching show we too have struggled, and still believe.Ted HeinzeNew Germany Lutheran Parish,New Germany, Nova ScotiaThe Fatherhood of God from Origen to AthanasiusPeter WiddicombeOxford: Clarendon Press, 1994290 pp.In a relatively small (ca. 250 pages of text) but costly volume, PeterWiddicombe, of McMaster University, offers a survey of the doctrine con-cerning divine fatherhood in the Alexandrian tradition. A central categoryof Christian thought, ‘divine fatherhood was a notion received by Origenfrom his philosophical background as well as from Scripture. He deepenedthe notion through a systematic analysis of divine titles found in the OldTestament, and he thoroughly rooted it in the teaching of the New. ThusOrigen became, in fact, the first proper theoretician of divine Trinity. Wid-dicombe seems to be at his best, when his careful and clear thinking unfoldsthe doctrinal implications of the Origenian construct (Part I, in particularchap. 3, pp. 63-92). Thus, for instance, he stresses Origens emphasis onthe eternity of fatherhood and sonship in God, a thesis which would againbe a matter of dispute during the Arian controversies of the fourth cen-tury. The distinction of Father and Son being central in Origen’s essay OnPrayer^ chapter 4 offers a genuine theological evaluation, rich in spiritualinsights, of that essay.After a needed transition through the very obscure beginnings of theArian crisis (Part II), the bulk of the study (Part III, pp. 145-254) is de-voted to a thoughtful and attractive description of Athanasius’s synthesis.First, the philosophical and scriptural aspects of Athanasian thought areclarified in chapter 8; then divine fatherhood according to Athanasius is

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