This was the period when nationalism and the nation state became dominant in Europe. The book studies presentations of Jesus by the most influential scholars from different parts of Europe with different forms of nationalism: F. Schleiermacher and D.F.Strauss in Germany, E. Renan in France and G.A. Smith in Great Britain. The book shows how the images of Jesus participated in the discussions of national identities in terms of citizens’ rights, gender roles and relations to ‘the other’.
This study is also relevant for the relations between religion and politics at the present. It questions the dominant role of nationalism and the nation state as political and ideological models in today’s world, and argues that historical Jesus studies should present Jesus in a universal perspective, ‘beyond nationalism’