Abstract
Books arguing for (or against) the historical veracity of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead abound. Murray Rae explores the resurrection from the conviction that belief in Jesus’s resurrection is rooted not upon historical research but, rather, upon an experiential encounter with the Spirit of the risen Christ. Rae states that the purpose of his book ‘is not to enter into an argument about whether the resurrection really happened but to explore what has changed and what may be affirmed as true in light of the fact (so I believe as a Christian) that it has happened’ (p. xii). As such, Rae’s argument is characterized by theologically inclined exegesis of Bible.
In each of his nine chapters, Rae seeks to show how the resurrection has transformed some aspect of the world. For example, in ‘Life Transformed’ (ch. 3), Rae argues that the resurrection of Jesus reveals the God of Israel to be a life-giving God who delivers, liberates, and rescues his people from despair and death (e.g., Acts 26:12-18; Eph. 2:4-10). God takes humanity’s crucifixion of Jesus, itself a pronouncement of a verdict that Jesus is a false Messiah or a pretender, and raises him from the dead thereby calling ‘into question the verdict declared by those who sentenced him to death’ (ch. 4, p. 63). Rae’s argument here works especially well with the Acts of the Apostles where Peter and Paul repeatedly speak of God’s resurrection of Jesus as his heavenly exaltation which overturns and corrects the false verdict Israel’s leaders had placed upon Jesus through their putting him to death (see especially Acts 2:22-36). The resurrection is also God’s promise to renew creation (ch. 5). Here Rae focuses especially on the Gospel of John where Jesus’s offer to provide living water and the bread of life flow from Jesus’s status as the risen Lord. In the final chapters, Rae further demonstrates that Jesus’s resurrection transforms history, ethics, community, and human hope for the future.
Resurrection and Renewal provides an accessible and edifying theological engagement of the resurrection. The book clearly shows how deeply Jesus’s resurrection is woven into the entire New Testament witness and, more importantly, demonstrates both its dogmatic and, perhaps more importantly, its existential challenge for those who confess that God has raised Jesus from the dead.