Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Foreword : forty years on / Morna D. Hooker -- The rise of the quest for an authentic Jesus : an introduction to the crumbling foundations of Jesus research / Anthony Le Donne -- Historical methodology and the quest for an authentic Jesus. The indebtedness of the criteria approach to form criticism and recent attempts to rehabilitate the search for an authentic Jesus / Chris Keith -- The criteria of authenticity in Jesus research and historiographical method / Jens Schroter -- Specific criteria in the quest for an authentic Jesus. "Semitic influence on Greek" : an authenticating criterion in Jesus research? / Loren T. Stuckenbruck -- The criterion of coherence : its development, inevitability, and historiographical limitations / Anthony Le Donne -- Saving the quest for authenticity from the criterion of dissimilarity : history and plausibility / Dagmar Winter -- The embarrassing truth about Jesus : the criterion of embarrassment and the failure of historical authenticity / Rafael Rodriguez -- Criticizing the criterion of multiple attestation : the historical Jesus and the question of sources / Mark Goodacre -- Reflections on moving past traditional Jesus research. Why the authentic Jesus is of no use for the church / Scot McKnight -- It don't come easy : a history of disillusionment / Dale C. Allison, Jr. -- The fall of the quest for an authentic Jesus : concluding remarks / Chris Keith.