the more convincing because it stands at such odds with the traditional picture of Jesus drawn from the Gospels. Funk’s work and that of the Jesus Seminar are presumably intended to mark some kind of triumph of “the historical Jesus” over “the Christ of faith.” In all this a striking feature is readily apparent: that in the quest of the historical Jesus, faith is a hindrance, faith leads the searcher down the wrong road, faith prevents the searcher from recognizing the real Jesus. Faith is bad, history