The Trouble with Resurrection Paperback – November 1, 2010

This book encourages more questions. Hermeneutics of the Bible are compared with other texts from early Christianity. Available secular writings are reviewed with other religious canons, considering coexisting faith beliefs historically, and current comparison to our understanding in science and faith as related to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and resurrection in general.I have read reviews stating this book showed exhaustive review to analyze the topic of resurrection. However, I still find significant areas of opinion and premature summation on the topic and other topics within. I understand the necessary volumes of writing and study which precludes the work. I appreciate the arguments. I believe bias remains between some lines. I do not know that I have any greater understanding or that it stimulates a stronger personal opinion of resurrection.

A very good pesentation of variation of the use of language and interpretation. The use of a number of transliteration and anachronisms kept me from giving five stars.

This work examines all the terms in both Greek and Jewish culture that have come into our present world as "the body spring out of the grave and flies to heaven." I have had to read it twice and might do it again, because most of the information and the opinions are new to me. The approach appeals to me because it moves out of the literal world into the metaphorical arena. The analysis is fascinating to me. The reason for four stars instead of five: this is the most poorly edited book I have seen since Adam was a pup. There are typos and mistakes almost any editor would catch. Did Poleridge Press just throw it on the press and have no one look at it?

This book is a product of the scholarship of the Westar Institute (Santa Rosa, CA), which also produced the Jesus Seminar. Here is information about their agenda and their radical false beliefs (Robert Funk's word choice to describe his beliefs, taken from the title of one of his books) about Jesus and the Bible:Robert Funk (deceased as of 2005), who founded Westar Institute and the Jesus Seminar and is therefore indirectly responsible for this book through the author's affiliation with the Westar Institute, was a man who rejected Jesus as God, rejected Jesus as our Savior, rejected His substitutionary death on the cross for our sins, rejected His bodily resurrection, and more.In general, the folks associated with the Westar Institute and the Jesus Seminar and its books are unbelievers trying to convince Christians to become unbelievers.Here is the TROUBLE with _The Trouble with Resurrection_:"And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins." NLT, 1 Cor 15:17If there is no resurrection, then there is no salvation--a dead Jesus can do nothing to save us--and no reason to play the religious go to church game. If there is no resurrection, then why do we need "spiritual" leaders? Why pay them to preach a book they don't believe?On the other hand, if you are an atheist and are interested in Christianity for some reason, this book may be for you.

Bernard Brandon Scott analyzes the texts relating to the resurrection, in the letters of Paul, the Septuagint, Q, and non-canonical gospels. His insights are striking; his arguments persuasive. If you are interested, as I am, in trying to deepen your understanding of the Biblical texts relating to the resurrection, this book is a must. While challenging, Scott's writing is lucid, logical, and only as difficult as it needs to be (given that it is analyzing Koine Greek texts, and trying to convey nuances of meaning). The reader does need to have some familiarity with modern New Testament scholarship. I would recommend reading this either as a book, (best), or through the Cloud Reader. It's not very well suited to the Kindle e-book. (at least Gen. 1 or Gen 2 (which is what I have.)  The Trouble with Resurrection

The information is excellent and Bernard Scott is to be commended for presenting a realistic understanding of how we have come to view ressirection as something it was never meant to be. I was disappointed in the format as it was viewed on my Kindle. Information that was included in boxes in the print version just appeared as regular text on the Kindle version. This made it difficult to understand what was presentation as opposed to explanation. I hope the formatting problems will be overcome as Kindle use becomes more common.

Brandon Scott is a gifted scholar and presenter both, and his Trouble With Resurrection takes a unique approach to the question of whether or not the resurrection of Jesus was a literal, physical event. His understanding regarding the nuance of the Greek language makes the journey into discovering the real roots behind the resurrection accounts much easier to decipher. Scholarship of this sort has only been available to the "general public" for maybe the last 15 - 20 years and Scott's attempt to make his work readable to the general audience is admirable. I hope historical Jesus scholarship is here to stay!

The subject matter intrigued me, but even though this is a short book, it's very slow. I found the writing dense and far too academic. I wish his editor had helped him find a "trade voice" to make his insights more accessible and compelling. The style was so off-putting that for me that vitiated what little power the book actually had and I kept feeling I was drawn off to asides that blurred the main focus.

Scott has done a fantastic job of tracing the development of the idea of resurrection in the early church. He invites you to follow him along step by step. There were a few points where I might take the conclusions in a slightly different direction (E.g. is Bultmann's demythologization project really the best way to express where we need to go. In some ways I think we might need to have a remythologization project. Myth still has enormous power and we need to harness that ) but he has undoubtedly deepened my understanding of the idea of resurrection, its power and its potential in the modern age.