What More Should We Know about Jesus than One Hundred Years Ago?

Since the most important sources for our knowledge are the Synoptic Gospels (esp. Mark and Q), historical Jesus research is always a hermeneutical exercise in which the tension between both faith and history is involved in a fruitful way. In fact, there is a lot of similarity between evangelists and researchers: both groups reconstruct Jesus from a specific perspective in view of a trustworthy image of Jesus. Contemporary research can learn from the past in avoiding three false oppositions: historical research versus theology, eschatological expectation versus immanent presence of the Kingdom, context versus text of the gospels. Finally, the challenge for historical research today is to learn to live with a plurality of valid Jesus interpretations.