Jesus, History, and Revelation

There is a long-standing assumption that the theological visions of Karl Barth and N. T. Wright are fundamentally at odds with one another, with the thinkers purportedly representing two vastly different schools of thought within the Christian tradition. Jesus, History, and Revelation intervenes in these debates, challenging the prevailing paradigm in which Barth is hailed as the forerunner of "apocalyptic theology" and Wright is the standard-bearer of a "salvation-historical" scheme.

Mitchell Mallary demonstrates how Barth and Wright share remarkable affinities with one another in relation to Jesus as the objective historical reality of revelation, the subjective conditions for the possibility of human reception of revelation, and the task of the historian. Jesus, History, and Revelation proposes that the lived history of Jesus and the reality of divine revelation cannot be neatly categorized into "apocalyptic" or "salvation-historical" schemes. Indeed, whereas those debates often center on Pauline interpretation, Mallary suggests that these issues first require to be addressed in relation to the historical Jesus, the Gospels, and Christology proper.

Jesus, History, and Revelation is the first book to bring the work of Karl Barth into dialogue with N. T. Wright. Importantly, Mallary clarifies the relationship between the creaturely form of Jesus's humanity and the content of divine revelation, explains the necessary conditions whereby humans can discern this revelation, and unpacks the implications of both for a proper understanding of the relevance and limits of historical study for Christian theology.