Endnote 11 – Why Search for the Historical Jesus?

Ernst Käsemann expresses the point this way: “Such research [into the historical Jesus] is theologically meaningful insofar as it struggles to grasp the unmistakable individuality of this earthly Jesus. The King of heaven has no countenance, unless it is that of the Nazarene” (“Die neue Jesus-Frage,” Jésus aux origines de la christologie, ed. J. Dupont, Bibliotheca Ephemeridum theologicarum lovaniensium 40 [Leuven: Leuven University; Gembloux: Duculot, 1975], pp. 47–57).