Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Introduction: A brief overview -- The problem of theological utility -- The enduring discord of the experts -- The enduring challenge of personal predilection -- The perceptions of others and personal identity -- Disputed questions -- How much history does theology require? -- How should we treat our texts? -- How might one come to know Jesus? -- How to proceed -- The wrong tools for the wrong job -- The general and the particular -- Miracles here, there, and everywhere -- Some difficult conclusions -- Christology : too low and too high -- Eschatology : here to stay -- Context : gone for good -- Some personal impressions -- Contradictions : divine love and human woe -- Imagination : ought over is -- Synthesis : the coincidence of opposites.

In this book, Dale Allison addresses ongoing historical-theological questions concerning Jesus Christ. What should one think of the modern quest for the historical Jesus when there is such enduring discord among the experts, and when personal agendas play such a large role in the reconstructions? How much history is in the Gospels, and how much history does Christian theology require that there be? How does the quest impinge on conventional Christian beliefs, and what might it contribute to contemporary theological reflection? --From publisher's description