Seeking the Identity of Jesus: A Rejoinder

Bauckham’s response, while focusing on the historical dimensions of Jesus, is right to raise the question of the meaning of ‘identity’. It perhaps invests too much confidence, however, in memory and recollection. Riches’ thoughtful unpacking of some of the tensions in the volume nevertheless downplays the apocalyptic and the narrative contours of Paul’s thought. While Riches’ call for a wider global view might offer fresh perspectives on the situation of poverty in Jesus’ own context, it would hardly enable us to relativize the demonic realm. Seeking the Identity of Jesus calls for an epistemological approach that recognizes not only ‘the historical nature of theological truth’ (Riches) but also the theological nature of historical truth.