Features a collection of essays that look at the cultural and ideological beginnings of historical Jesus studies in the nineteenth century and expose the underlying presuppositions of hegemony in contemporary presentations of Jesus, viewed from the perspective of 'cultural complexity'.

1. Ward Blanton, James G. Crossley, and Halvor Moxnes Introduction2. Thomas Hylland Eriksen (CULCOM, Oslo, Norway) What is Cultural Complexity?3. Halvor Moxnes What is it to Write a Biography of Jesus? Schleiermacher's Life of Jesus and 19th Century Nationalism4. Peter Normann Waage Dostoyevsky and the Russian Christ6. Ward Blanton Albert Schweitzer's Apocalyptic Jesus and the End of Modernity7. Leif E. Vaage (Emmanuel College, Victoria University, Toronto) Beyond Nationalism: Jesus the 'Holy Anarchist'? Or: The Cynic Jesus as Eternal Recurrence of the Repressed8. William E. Arnal (University of Regina, Canada) Jesus as Battleground in a Period of Cultural Complexity 9. James G. Crossley Jesus the Jew since 196710. OddbjA rn Leirvik (University of Oslo) Jesus in Modern Muslim Thought: From Anti-colonial Polemics to Post-colonial Dialogue?

Ward Blanton is Senior Lecturer in the School of Critical Studies at the University of Glasgow. James G. Crossley is Professor of Bible, Culture and Politics in the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield. Halvor Moxnes is Professor in New Testament at the University of Oslo, Norway.