A Brief Book Notice from Books At a Glance
An unusual approach to the essential facts of the Christian faith, exploring their implications for Christianity’s truth claims and implications.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Prologue: When Titans Meet
1 Studying History Is Time Traveling
2 Bedrock Eyewitness: The Apostle Paul
3 Bedrock Source: 1 Corinthians 15:3–7
4 Crucifixion: “Christ Died for Our Sins and He Was Buried”
5 Resurrection: “He Was Raised on the Third Day”
6 Appearances: To Peter, the Twelve, More than Five Hundred, James, and Paul
7 The Rise of the Nazarenes: “Fighting against God”
Conclusion: “This Is Wondrous Strange”
Foreword
by Darrell Bock
There are many things said about Jesus, just as there are many, often conflicting, views about him. So where should one start in thinking about him and his significance? How do we sort out the range of things claimed about him: a myth, a religious great, a misguided revolutionary, a model of piety, a deceiver, a blasphemer, a Christ, or a Son of God? That is where this work comes in. Justin Bass has asked, Why not start with what is not so debated and what we know about him? Christianity has uniquely been a religion about core events and claims centered in a singular person. Bass explores what that view means, where it came from, how far back it can be traced, and what that could well mean. It is a helpful starting point to sort out the cacophony of claims about Jesus.
The Bedrock of Christianity takes you on a journey. You will learn much about what we know about Jesus and central claims coming from the earliest Christian faith. It involves travel through ideas, history, and archaeology. It also is more. It asks basic questions about how far back these ideas go. Were they late ideas, fabricated to bring hope to a sad tragedy of an untimely death of a curious, distant, ancient figure? Do they parallel anything else we have seen in history? How did this core history change the direction of the way our world sees life? How do we even know what was core and early? How did such a backwater movement emerge from a handful of “believers” with no social or political power to become such a global presence? Above all, why do any of these questions matter?
The question about the bedrock of Christianity is really a query about the nature of our lives and their purpose. So this history ultimately entails a deeply personal story, a claim that the Creator God intentionally entered our world as one of us to show us the way to life and meaning. Heaven came down to earth and left footprints on the ground, laying a bedrock we can trace. In that bedrock are the core early claims of Christian faith. And the personal story claiming to come from God aims to become our story as well, giving sense and direction to how we see life. It is in the history treated here that we start to see our own story. To get there we need to take a careful look at the basis for whether Jesus’ story matters or not. We need to know whether that account is merely a story or something more solid. With Justin Bass as a qualified guide, you might not only get answers to such questions, but you might find yourself in the middle of God’s story, just as have many others throughout history.
Darrell L. Bock
Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies
Dallas Theological Seminary
Endorsements
“Justin Bass offers a delightful excavation of the historical foundations of the Christian faith pertaining to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. A terrific exposition of early Christian testimony about Jesus. Wisely researched and artfully written.”
Michael F. Bird, academic dean and lecturer of theology, Ridley College, Melbourne, Australia
“Layer by layer, The Bedrock of Christianity provides substantive, thoughtful, and accessible clarity to the source facts of Jesus and early Christianity. Whether the reader is a skeptic or a growing disciple, agreement can be found in the basic ‘givens’ of a history and faith that have withstood the test of time and criticism. Accessible to the lay reader but written with the acuity of a New Testament scholar, Justin Bass informs all.”
Mark Penick, senior pastor, Metro East Baptist Church, Wichita, Kansas