Recently a new outburst of works on the historical Jesus has appeared, stimulated by new methods, more comprehensive literary sources, and more extensive archaeological finds from Jesus' time. But many unresolved matters pertaining to the historical Jesus remain. Among these are:
- the significance of the historical Jesus for faith
- the historical problem of investigating the "life" of Jesus
- whether Jesus actualized his own self-understanding in an act of self-consciousness
- whether and how Jesus may have spoken of the "son of man" how to evaluate the varying pictures of Jesus that have emerged from historical readings of the evidence

These and other matters are discussed in this volume. In addition to the editors, contributors include Marcus J. Borg, Richard Horsley, and Doron Mendels.