Book Review: Dethroning Jesus

Dethroning Jesus: Exposing Popular Culture's Quest to Unseat the Biblical Christ, by Darrell L. Bock & Daniel B. Wallace

In recent years, the claims being made against Jesus as the Christ have increased. The authors of Dethroning Jesus, Bock and Wallace, note that many who make such claims respect Jesus and many of his teachings, but they do not accept that he claimed to be the Christ, the Redeemer. Bock and Wallace have coined a new term for such a view that excludes Christ from Jesus: Jesusanity. Dethroning Jesus is an apologetic work to counter the claims.

The authors look at six specific claims of Jesusanity and analyze their merits.:

1. The Original New Testament Has Been Corrupted by Copyists So Badly That It Can't Be Recovered
2. Secret Gnostic Gospels, Such as Judas, Show the Existence of Early Alternative Christianities
3. The Gospel of Thomas Radically Alters Our Understanding of the Real Jesus
4. Jesus' Message Was Fundamentally Political and Social
5. Paul Took Captive the Original Movement of Jesus and James, Moving It from a Jewish Reform Effort to a Movement That Exalted Jesus and Included Gentiles
6. Jesus' Tomb Has Been Found, and His Resurrection and Ascension Did Not Involve a Physical Departure

Obviously, this being a short review, I cannot go into details on any of the above. I'd like to briefly summarize the conclusion to each of the claims that Dethroning Jesus makes (numbers below correspond to numbers above).

1. This is a response specifically to Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus. Bock and Wallace explain how Ehrman rejected Biblical inerrancy and swung all the way to the other side of the ditch. Bock and Wallace object to the way Ehrman "spins" the available data regarding transmission errors. Bock and Wallace discuss how although Ehrman does not directly say so, by spinning the data (by omitting important counter evidence) and with his writing, he gives the impression that the New Testament is full of errors, particularly to readers who are now well-versed in textual criticism.
2. This is a response to Elaine Pagels and her claim that the Gnostic Gospels present an earlier, and therefore, more accurate description of Jesus. Bock and Wallace specifically discusses Judas and goes through some of the key reasons why historically, gnostic flavors of Christianity could not have been a viable alternative.
3. This is a response to claims that Jesus was really just a teacher of wisdom. Through a brief analysis of Thomas, Bock and Wallace show how it describes salvation through knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. In doing so, Thomas removes any need for faith and belief in salvation. Bock and Wallace discuss reasons why Thomas could not be an authentic, early gospel account.
4. This is a response to claims that Jesus' real significance was that he tried to reform earthly society. Bock and Wallace give Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan's The Last Week: A Day-by-Day Account of Jesus' Final Week in Jerusalem as one work that promotes this kind of political and social justice view of Jesus. In this view of Jesus, he is seen as just a social reformer. Messianic claims are rejected and seen as later additions to the gospel accounts. Bock and Wallace discuss how and why Borg and Crossan's arguments are inadequate and faulty.
5. This is a response to James Tabor's The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity. Tabor's premise is that Jesus is only human and his story is purely human. It was Paul who took Jesus, infused him with divinity, and brought him to Gentiles, thus birthing what would eventually become Christianity. Bock and Wallace argue that this premise is based on faulty use of and appeal to evidence.
6. This is a response to the fairly recent Discovery Channel's documentary on the supposed find of the "Jesus Tomb." Bock and Wallace note that even many liberal scholars who are not favorable to Christianity reject this claim due to faulty assumptions, faulty statistics, and faulty interpretation of evidence. Bock and Wallace go through a number of reasons why this claim can be rejected.

Bock and Wallace do not present all of their evidence within the pages of their book. Rather, they use this book to reference some of their earlier works. Thus Dethroning Jesus should not be viewed as comprehensive apologetics to the claims above, but rather as summaries. Readers wanting more depth and details should go to the referenced primary sources.

Dethroning Jesus ends with a concluding chapter that summarizes the six claims and why the arguments for Jesusanity are inadequate. Bock and Wallace notes however that, "A negative case against Jesusanity doesn't constitute a positive case for a more traditional [exalted Jesus] view." This is followed by a very brief section on why sufficient evidence does exist to believe and hold to an exalted -- i.e., Christ, Messiah, Redeemer -- Jesus view.

Will Dethroning Jesus convince anyone to change their minds who a priori rejects Jesus as Christ? Probably not. On the other hand for those who, due to the recent attacks, are harboring questions about the Bible and the Jesus described in the Bible, I think this book gives sufficient evidence showing that the claims of Jesusanity are not necessarily as strong as its proponents would like everyone to believe. Rather, there is sufficient evidence to continue to believe that Jesus is the Christ.