Michael Licona's The Resurrection Of Jesus (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2010) just came out. It's a revised and updated version of his doctoral dissertation. I haven't read much of it yet. It's around 700 pages long. But I want to make readers aware of it. I should have more to say about it as I read more of it.
It carries endorsements from James Charlesworth, Gerd Theissen, Richard Hays, and other scholars. The endorsements are impressive. Richard Hays comments that "I am not aware of any scholar who has previously offered such a thorough and fair-minded account of the historiographical prolegomena to the resurrection question." Craig Keener calls it "the most thorough treatment on the resurrection and historiography to date". James Charlesworth calls it a "thorough study of beliefs in Jesus' resurrection", and C. Behan McCullagh describes it as "an astonishing achievement" and "full of fresh insights".
If you're still hesitant about getting it, I suggest looking over the table of contents and indexes. Very impressive.
To further whet your appetite (and to keep me from going crazy while I wait for my review copy from IVP!), Google Books has a substantial chunk of it online:
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/2gxttpw
From what I have read so far I am very impressed. Licona's writing is crystal clear and the treatment is as close to fully objective as I have seen so far.