Prologue Summary and Analysis

"From Christ to Jesus" The author defines his intent to come to an understanding of the historical realities of the life and teaching of Jesus and his motivation such as the realization that the four traditional New Testament gospels are, in fact, "interpretations" of Jesus' life based on individual theological perspectives. He documents the existence of other forms of gospel outside the four New Testament gospels, and describes the process of research and synthesis that led to the formation of his theories, a process that includes three components. They are examinations of the life and ways of the time in which Jesus lived such as "cross-cultural anthropology," of the history of the area and its effect on everyday life such as "Greco-Roman and especially Jewish history," and of the development of various theological perspectives arising from Jesus' life and teaching such...