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THE GOSPELS: PORTRAITS OF CHRIST by Wayne G. Rollins

THE GOSPELS: PORTRAITS OF CHRIST

By

Pub Date: Jan. 13th, 1964
Publisher: Westminster

After a review of the style of New Testament scholarship in the past forty years (which the author characterizes as ""peeling the onion"" -- the ""approach of dynamic realism"") -- concise accounts of the four Gospel interpretations are here presented. The orientation of each Gospel is given through a phrase which the writer takes as indicating the essential portrait of Christ revealed Mark as a Religious-Existentialist, Matthew as an Ethical-Apocalyptic, Luke (including much of Acts) as an Aesthetic-Historical approach, and John as a Paradoxical-Mystical approach. While these designations help to sharpen the unique contribution of each Gospel to our understanding of Jesus, they tend also to suggest more distinction between the Gospels than would find universal acceptance. At the same time, they do not do complete justice to the breadth of the author's discussion of each Gospel. The scholarship here is substantial and informed, the style clear, and the large amount of technical material handled with skill so that the result is very readable for the lay reader, or the college student, for whom- among others- it may be intended.