A Hitchhiker's Guide to Jesus: Reading the Gospels on the Ground - Softcover

Bruce N. Fisk

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801036062 ISBN 13: 9780801036064

Publisher: Baker Academic, 2011

Synopsis

This imaginative approach to Jesus studies chronicles the journey of Norm, a fictional college graduate who travels to the Middle East to see if he can study Jesus and follow him at the same time, and if curiosity will make him a better disciple or no disciple at all.

Norm sets out on an adventure to investigate the New Testament and the life of Jesus for himself, hitchhiking simultaneously across the Gospels and the land. His travels offer students and lay readers a creative and engaging way to explore many of the major questions in Jesus studies today. Will Norm be able to reconcile his Christian faith with critical scholarship? As readers follow his faith journey, they learn the importance of asking probing questions. The book's lavish, journal-style interior design--featuring maps, photos, doodles, sketches, and email exchanges between Norm and his professor--makes it fun to read.

About this title

About the Author

Bruce N. Fisk (PhD, Duke University) is professor of religious studies at Westmont College and the author of Do You Not Remember? Scripture, Story, and Exegesis in the Rewritten Bible of Pseudo-Philo and Interpretation Bible Studies: 1 Corinthians. A fresh voice in New Testament scholarship, he travels widely throughout the world of the earliest Christians--Israel/Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Greece, and Italy--often with students.

From the Back Cover

Studying the Historical Jesus on Location

"A Hitchhiker's Guide to Jesus is a wonderful travel guide for pilgrims perplexed by the multiple maps hawked by recent scholarship. But it is also an invitation for homebound believers to join a journey of discovery to the mysterious places where history meets hope. Bruce Fisk is a wise and imaginative tour guide, and this book will open new angles of vision for readers seeking to investigate the path of Jesus."
--Richard B. Hays, Duke University Divinity School

"Bruce Fisk has possibly written the most creative, fascinating, and informed book on the Gospels in a generation. . . . 'Genius' could well describe many of the pages in the book. Fisk is a first-rate scholar as well as a brilliant communicator. Every New Testament teacher owes it to his or her students to consider this as a fresh new text on the Gospels."
--Gary M. Burge, Wheaton College

"With warmth, wit, and penetrating insight, Fisk writes for all who find themselves fascinated by the enigmatic prophet from Nazareth yet unwilling to settle either for the naive certainties of 'simple faith' or for the latest 'assured results' of biblical criticism."
--Ross Wagner, Princeton Theological Seminary

"This is really three books in one. It is a (very hip) college textbook written by an expert: an introduction to New Testament criticism, including the quest for the historical Jesus, the synoptic problem, and so on. It is also a kind of handbook to travel and politics in modern Israel. And finally, it is a novel with a protagonist named Norm on a personal quest for a faith that will hold up in the face of honest questions. . . . What a satisfying read!"
--Bruce Hindmarsh, Regent College

"Students often find the academic study of the Gospels disorienting as they discover a previously unexplored world of literary, historical, and theological questions opening up before them. . . . Fisk proves himself a reliable guide--knowledgeable, candid, steady, and witty--through this territory."
--Marianne Meye Thompson, Fuller Theological Seminary

"A lively romp that combines travelogue with quest narrative. . . . Along the way, we are introduced to the key issues that occupy modern scholars, and we discover why those issues would matter to people in the world today. . . . This is definitely a creative way of granting students access to modern and postmodern fields of New Testament study."
--Mark Allan Powell, Trinity Lutheran Seminary

"I've never seen (nor imagined!) anything like this book. . . . Readers traverse the territories of biblical scholarship, Judaism, Greco-Roman religion, and the Christian tradition in a journey of personal and spiritual reflection. . . . Fisk has inaugurated a new genre in biblical studies that deftly combines academic study with the human experience."
--Kenton L. Sparks, Eastern University

Edition details

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801036062
• ISBN 13: 9780801036064
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288