The Resurrection of Jesus

A New Historiographical Approach

The question of the historicity of Jesus' resurrection has been repeatedly probed, investigated, and debated. And the results have varied widely. Perhaps some now regard this issue as the burned-over district of New Testament scholarship. Could there be any new and promising approach to this problem?

Yes, answers Michael Licona. And he convincingly points us to a significant deficiency in approaching this question: our historiographical orientation and practice. So he opens this study with an extensive consideration of historiography and the particular problem of investigating claims of miracles. This alone is a valuable contribution.

But then Licona carefully applies his principles and methods to the question of Jesus' resurrection. In addition to determining and working from the most reliable sources and bedrock historical evidence, Licona critically weighs other prominent hypotheses. His own argument is a challenging and closely argued case for the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus, the Christ. Any future approaches to dealing with this "prize puzzle" of New Testament study will need to be routed through The Resurrection of Jesus.

©2010 Michael R. Licona (P)2022 Tantor

Logical and diligent approach

This book is not a cursory or summary type of book but drills down into the details on the current arguments for and against the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus. It’s been a lot of time laying out the proper methods and logical assumptions that can, and probably should be the basis of all historical inquiries.

Great look into the resurrection from a historical perspective

Very thorough book. First part is just explaining methods and the end is utilizing them

I took a chance on this book

Given that this might be the first audible review, I thought it would be helpful to others if I shared my experience with this book. I downloaded the book because I was interested in the resurrection of Jesus, with a overview of those who believe in the resurrection versus those who do not. I was also very interested in the section about miracles, which I am currently studying. For those who are familiar with academia, this audiobook reads very much like a dissertation, and in my opinion, the book needs to be edited for the general reader or layman because there are many terms that the general readerwill not recognize or understand if they have not taken a class on studying scripture before.The first section or chapter about understanding truth is certainly a bit overkill, and I recommend only skimming it briefly then moving onto the next section. There is a lot of great information in this book, especially if you are interested in the scholarship regarding different viewpoints of the resurrection and miracles.

Very Compelling Case for the Historicity of The Resurrection of Jesus

Dr. Licona makes a fascinating case, arguing that with only using the very few facts that almost every scholar agrees on, the resurrection of Jesus is still the best hypothesis to explain the data.

Shallow and dry

This book began as a degree thesis and it really shows. It uses many words but says very little, and is very wishy-washy on most of its conclusions. I can't see it being useful to either a beginner, who would get way more out of Licona's tighter clearer earlier book The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus. I can't see it being useful for an experienced person either, as it's just a fairly shallow overview of things they would already know well.

It was written for a very specific audience, those issuing his degree, and in my opinion it is with them that it should have remained.

The very dry presentation of the material is very much not helped in this audiobook version by the equally dry narrator.