We live in an increasingly diverse and multi-cultural world. Once, one rarely encountered anyone who did not know who Jesus of Nazareth was and, indeed, did not already possess considerable information about him. That is not as true today. What we know, or think we know, about Jesus of Nazareth derives from many different sources: what we learned in church, what we have read in the New Testament, what the popular culture says about him, and so forth. All of this information gets folded into our contemporary understanding of Jesus.
As a backdrop for our serious inquiry into Jesus of Nazareth, it is important to have a clear and self-conscious portrait of who we understand Jesus to be now, before we begin our serious study of Jesus in the primary sources, the four Gospels. Following a serious study of Jesus in the Gospels, we might discover that our portrait of him has changed, or not. Either way, our current portrait of Jesus becomes a “benchmark” of sorts for the study ahead.
Who Is This Jesus? Do we need Him in our Post modern world order?
