The Founder of Christianity

by C.H. Dodd

Book Overview

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• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• ISBN: B002QMQXLA
• Release Date: January 1972
• Publisher: Macmillan
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A classic work by one of the greatest biblical scholars

C H Dodd, now dead, was one of the greatest biblical scholar's of the last century. His work helped to defeat that other huge presence in the 20th century--Bultmann. This slim volume starts with a forward by the famous John A T Robinson, perhaps every Christian's favorite biblical scholar. First of all, I was surprised by how readable Dodd is. Many, if not most, biblical scholars may have breathtaking arguments to make, but their writing is awful. It's like slogging through wet sand to get to the end of a chapter. Dodd writes in an interesting, logical style that's easy to read. He starts off the book by imaging a time machine going in reverse, through the Middle Ages to Constantine, to, finally, Pliny, where he starts his discussion of Christ. Pliny complains about temples now deserted, and about a slump in animal markets because so many people had stopped sacrificing to the gods. The Christians Pliny persecuted celebrated the Lord's supper, an act of remembrance. "The continuity of memory within the church nay be illustrated by an example. Round about 200 AD there died at Lyons....Irenaeus....(Irenaeus) recalls how they used to attend lectures by Polycarp...who used to tell them stories about 'John, the disciple of the Lord...Irenaeus, then, was able to recall at only one remove a man who had known Jesus intimately" (p 26-27). Much of the information here is still valuable. The one chapter that seemed the most dated is the one on the documents of the New Testament. He assumes a sayings gospel prior to the four gospels. This was likely based on the idea of the Gospel of Thomas, which so many argued should be dated early. Now, of course, it is usually dated to around 170 or even later. In the end, Dodd has reversed the time machine until he comes to the original apostles. "Clearly, something had changed these men" (p 176).

Wonderful Insight

What the books lacks in length (a mere 172 pages) it easily makes up for in intellectual depth and insight. C.H. Dodd truly is an amazing mind in biblical scholarship. In this short work Dodd begins by looking at extra-biblical references to early Christianity, moves to examining the gospel accounts as recorded oral tradition, then examines the person and teachings of Christ. Dodd concludes by laying out the historical context of Judaic culture at the time, messianic expectations, and the political climate of the day. Obviously the length of the work does not allow it to be exhaustive on any of the above topics. But it presents a well informed overview of the topics listed. This small and inexpensive book should be part of every Bible students library.