Jesus and the Hope of the Poor

According to Luise Schottroff and Wolfgang Stegemann, the search for the historical Jesus has been marked by the tendency to isolate Jesus from his disciples and from Judaism. They argue, however, that Jesus is inseparable from his first disciples and from the indigent Jews who made up the earliest Jesus movement. Understood in the context of his following, Jesus emerges from Schottroff and Stegemann as a Jew who not only proclaimed the reign of God in a unique way but who was himself a symbol of hope for the poor and oppressed of his time. This exciting socio-historical interpretation of the Jesus movement focuses chiefly on the earliest Jesus tradition, the Sayings-source, and the Gospel of Luke. Students, teachers of New Testament studies, and anyone who wants to explore Jesus's life context will be challenged by this book.

Luise Schottroff teaches New Testament and feminist theology at the University of Kassel, Germany. Wolfgang Stegemann is Rector and Professor of New Testament at the Augustana Hochschule, Neuen dettelsau.