Dethroning Jesus: Exposing Popular Culture's Quest to Unseat the Biblical Christ by Darrell L Bock and Daniel B Wallace, 227 pages
In this work, Scripture scholars Bock and Wallace describe a popular modern alternative to Christianity, which they dub "Jesusanity". Although not an organized group possessing formal doctrines, the adherents of Jesusanity share certain common traits, primarily in their "dethroning" Christ by reimagining Him as a teacher of purely immanent ethical and political lessons. The authors examine several approaches which seek to discredit orthodox Christianity - the unreliability of the text of the New Testament, the existence of alternative gospels, the supposed Pauline rupture, and the claimed "tomb of Jesus". In each case, they find the critics' arguments unconvincing.
The cover of this book might suggest a simplistic assertion of faith in inerrant Scripture, but Bock and Wallace are genuine scholars who actually engage the arguments of their opponents. In some cases, in fact, they give their opponents more credit than they deserve - in the section dealing with the "Jesus family tomb" especially. While by no means exhaustive (Bock has himself written numerous works on different elements of "Jesusanity"), it is a solid counter to the frequent discovery of the "latest really real Jesus".
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