The Real Jesus of History

Was the real Jesus of history one and the same as the Christ of faith whom we read about in the New Testament and worship in the church?  Was Jesus really raised from the dead?  Is he really the divine Lord of lords?  Or is it possible that the portrait of the divine Son of God is an exaggeration, at best, or a complete fabrication, at worst, of the original Jesus?  Could the one whom Christians worship be merely a mythological creation or is he real?

These questions have exercised many great minds and have been the dominant issue in New Testament studies during this century.  Between 1910 and 1950 approximately 350 lives of Jesus were published in the English language alone.  Since then the numbers have increased significantly.Not only are Christians writing about Jesus, but also Communists, Jews, atheists and agnostics are taking up their pens to paint a portrait of Jesus.  [more]