Risen Indeed: A Historical Investigation Into the Resurrection of Jesus
Risen Indeed
A pivotal contribution to the history of apologetics.
Gary Habermas has spent a career defending the historicity and truthfulness of the resurrection of Jesus. But his earliest writing on Jesus’ resurrection has been unavailable to the broader public, until now.
In Risen Indeed: A Historical Investigation Into the Resurrection of Jesus, readers will encounter Gary Habermas’ foundational research into the historicity of the resurrection. With a new, extensive, introductory essay on contemporary scholarship regarding the resurrection, Habermas shows how the questions surrounding the historicity of the resurrection and arguments raised by critics are perennially important for Christian faith.
Praise for Risen Indeed
Gary Habermas is the preeminent scholar on the matter of the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus, having researched it for six decades! Now, for the first time, his doctoral dissertation is available for all to read and presents in detail what has come to be known as the “minimal facts approach.” Without a doubt, this is one of the strongest and most compelling approaches to contending for the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection. Until his magnum opus is published, this book is the best source to learn Habermas’ famous approach.
—Michael Licona, Houston Baptist University
Top Highlights
“The scientific worldview can no longer be used to rule out the miraculous. Rather we must speak in terms of probabilities and investigate each miracle-claim.” (Page 86)
“We need not try to ascertain a priori what is able to occur today (as was done in a closed universe), since almost anything is possible according to its statistical probability. In other words, the ‘question is no longer what can happen, but what has happened’ because ‘the universe since Einstein has opened up to the possibility of any event’ (the italics are Montgomery’s).59 Therefore, we can only determine what has happened by investigating the sources in order to ascertain which events probably are and which events probably are not a part of history.” (Page 60)
“Jesus was believed to have appeared afterward to his followers in a spiritual body, which was neither an unchanged physical body or a spirit. Rather, there were both objective and subjective qualities in this spiritual body. The Christian concept of resurrection therefore differs from other ideas concerning immortality in that Jesus was not reincarnated, neither did he simply experience the continuance of his personality beyond the grave, nor was his soul absorbed into some type of universal soul. To the contrary, Jesus was believed to have literally been raised from the dead, as he appeared to his followers before his return to heaven.” (Pages 31–32)
“Modern science and history cannot refute this event, as we have seen” (Page 267)
“Thus form criticism only served to strengthen the belief that the resurrection is the historical basis of the Christian faith. It likewise confirmed the fact that this event occupied this very important position in theology since the very beginnings of Christianity.” (Page 261)
- Introduction
- Part 1: Approaching the Question of the Resurrection of Jesus
- The Present State of the Question
- The Possibility of Miracles Today
- History and Miracles
- Reason and Faith
- Part 2: Possible Solutions to the Question of the Resurrection of Jesus
- Possibility Number One: That the Resurrection Did Not Occur
- Possibility Number One: Other Similar Views
- Possibility Number Two: That the Resurrection Did Occur, But That it Cannot be Demonstrated
- Possibility Number Two: Other Similar Views
- Possibility Number Three: That the Resurrection Did Occur and That It Can Be Demonstrated
- Possibility Number Three: Other Similar Views
- Part 3: An Evaluation of the Solutions to the Question of the Resurrection of Jesus
- An Evaluation of Possibility Number One
- An Evaluation of Possibility Number Two
- An Evaluation of Possibility Number Three
- A Concluding Demonstration
- Title: Risen Indeed: A Historical Investigation Into the Resurrection of Jesus
- Author: Gary Habermas
- Publisher: Lexham Press
- Publication Date: 2021
- Page Count: 376
- Format: Logos Digital, Paperback
- Trim Size: 6x9
- ISBN: 9781683595496
Gary R. Habermas is Distinguished Research Professor and chair of the department of philosophy at Liberty University. He is a foremost apologist on the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection and has authored and coauthored over forty books, including The Historical Jesus and The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (with Michael R. Licona).