Birth of Jesus

George J. Brooke is Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis, University of Manchester (UK).

• Introduction, George Brooke. Part 1 Jesus - fully Jewish and more: Yeshu/Yeshua ben Yosef of Nazareth - discerning the Jewish face of Jesus, Philip Alexander; Qumran - the cradle of the Christ?, George Brooke; uncovering the corona - a theology of circumcision, Graham Ward. Part 2 Jesus, fully human and more: the birth of Jesus and why Paul was in favour of it, Barry Matlock; DNA of our DNA, Arthur Peacocke. Part 3 Jesus, more than the full story: the value of being virginal - Mary and Anna in the Lukan infancy prologue, Todd Klutz; "the story" and "our stories" -narrative theology, vernacular religion and the birth of Jesus, Elaine Graham. Part 4 Jesus, fully symbolic and more: an iconological argument, Gerald Downing; nativity and natality, Grace Jantzen.

"It has all the excitement of a smart wine-tasting party - or one of those buffets where everything on the tables is lovely and quite delightfully exotic, but oh so small."--Methodist Recorder