William Arnal is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1997, under the direction of John Kloppenborg. His previous books include Whose Historical Jesus? (co-edited with Michel Desjardins; Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1997) and Jesus and the Village Scribes (Fortress, 2001). Arnal's articles have appeared in Harvard Theological Review, the Journal of Biblical Literature, and the Journal of the American Academy of Religion.
Arnal skillfully argues that historical scholarship is always about the present. Yet Arnal is no debunker; he also argues that the contemporary implications of a scholar's work count neither for nor against its validity as historical scholarship. This book is concise, lucid and insightful. Highly recommended. - Religious Studies Review