Jesus and the Gospel – James Denney

Today’s free book is James Denney’s detailed study of the New Testament’s presentation of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.

My thanks to Book Aid for making a copy of this public domain title available for digitisation.

James Denney [1856-1917], Jesus and the Gospel. Christianity Justified in the Mind of Christ, 3rd edn. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1909. Hbk. pp.418. [Click here to visit the download page for this title]

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Book I. Christianity as it is Explained in the New Testament
  • Introduction: The Unity and Variety of the New Testament
  1. Christ in Primitive Christian Preaching
  2. Christ in the Faith of Paul
  3. Christ in the Epistle to the Hebrews
  4. Christ in the First Epistle of Peter
  5. Christ in the Epislte of James
  6. Christ in the Epistle of Jude and in the Second Epistle of Peter
  7. Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
     1. The Gospel according to Mark
     2. The Gospel according to Matthew
     3. The Gospel according to John
  8. Christ in the Johannine Writings
     1. The Apocalypse
     2. The Epistles of John
     3. The Gospel according to John
  • Summary and Transition
• Book II. The Historical Basis of the Christian Faith
  1. The Resurrection of Jesus
     • The Easter Faith and the Easter Message
     • The Oldest Historical Evidence
     • Moral Considerations involved in a True Appreciation of It
     • The Historical and the Spiritual Evidence as Combined in 1 Cor. XV
     • The Appearances of the Risen Jesus
       • Difficulties as to their order
       • Progressive materialism
       • Difficulties as to the scene of the appearings
     • Function of the Evangelists in Relation to the Resurrection
  2. The Self-Revelation of Jesus
     • (a) Preliminiary critical considerations
     • Dogmatic Preconceptions to the excluded
     • Character of the Evangelic Documents
     • Idea that historical criticism is irrelevant to Christianity
     • Historical Criticism and the Gospel Accoridng to Mark
     • Historical Criticism of the other primitive source—’Q’
     • (b) Detailed Study of the earliest sources as illustrating the self-consciousness of Jesus
     • The Baptism of Jesus
     • The Temptations
     • Jesus and the Twelve: The conditions of discipleship
     • The sermon of the mount
     • The healing of the Centurion’s servant: faith in JEsus
     • Jesus and John the Baptist
     • The great thanksgiving of Jesus
     • Isolated expressions in which Jesus’ consciousness of Himself is revealed: Matt. 11:20ff., 12:30, 12:6, 41, 42, 13:10f., 22:34ff.
     • Passages in which Jesus speaks of Himself as the Son of Man
     • Mark’s History of the Son of God
     • A typical dunamis or mighty work in which Jesus’ consciousness of himself is revealed: faith in Jesus
     • The Bridegroom and the children of bridechamber
     • The unpardonable sin in MArk
     • The Messiah and the cross: Mark 8:27-10:45
     • The triumphal entry into Jerusalem
     • The wicked husbandmen: servants and the Son
     • David’s son and David’s lord
     • The date of the parousia
     • The last supper
     • The final confession
• Conclusion
  • The one Christian faith vindicated in the mind of Christ
  • Objection based on the irrevelance of history to faith
  • Objection based on the unreliableness of the history in question
  • The right of evangelical Christianity secured
  • Attitude of individuals and of churches to these conclusions
  • Their bearing on the union of churches
  • Simplification of theological creeds fallacious
  • A uniting confession of faith
  • Objections considered
  • The essence of Christianity and how to secure it
  • Index of New Testament passages

Main image: Vocation of the Apostles (1481) by Domenico Ghirlandaio. Source: Wikipedia