The Historical Jesus books

[longdistancerunner]

The CoC always talking about restoring the Christianity of Jesus. I never heard much discussion about who Jesus was. I have been interested in this topic as it will help me to understand Christianity and how people view it. I wonder what books have others found useful about The Historical Jesus. The seminal one is by Albert Schweitzer, a very interesting person. Bart Ehrman is perhaps the most popular writer on this topic and his books are good but can be dry. I found a book that is too scholarly but the preface is very interesting entitled "A Marginal Jew" where the point is made Christianity was a marginal religion in terms of government, society, and judaism until after the 2nd century (I am not sure about that being correct). Resa Aslan's book Zealot is well written and engaging but take a viewpoint most scholars dispute. Paula Friedriksen is interesting but her books are too scholarly for me. What books have others looked at on this subject?

[Shane R]

The Jesus of Nazareth trilogy by Joseph Ratzinger.

[ACUAlumnus]

Marcus Borg. One important controversy among Life of Jesus scholars is whether Jesus himself took an apocalyptic view - the notion that the End is near and the faithful should prepare for it. The preaching of John the Baptist in the Gospels is a good example of apocalyptic. The early church also seems to have taken this view. The question is whether Jesus himself did or not. Ehrman says he did, Borg and some others say he did not.

[B.H.]

I'm skeptical of a lot of the scholars who claim this or that about the origins of Jesus or whether he was just a myth. I've looked into some of their sources amany times their sources do not claim what they say the do

For example several mythicists say Jesus was actually crucified up in the lowest heaven above earth and his earthly death and resurrection story we know evolved out of that. The mythicists I have read base this on a book called The Ascension of Isaiah.
According to them Jesus comes down and is actually crucified by Satan and devils in the lowest heaven above earth. Jesuss does descend down from the highest heaven and is crucified but it is not in the heavenly realm above earth Satan was thought to dwell. It has him come down to earth and be raised by Mary and Joseph and was crucified here. To be honest it's just plain dishonesty to claim otherwise.