Category:Historical Jesus Studies--Italian Scholarship

International impact

The international impact of Italian Scholarship in the field of Historical Jesus Studies has been limited by the paucity of original works, or translations, in international languages, and by the limited presence of Italian scholars in international projects of research.

At the beginning of the 20th century a couple of articles in the American Journal of Theology and the Harvard Theological Review drew attention on the promising developments in the field of the Study of Religion in Italy, but the long review article on the history of research on the Historical Jesus "from Locke to Reitzenstein," published in 1929 by Luigi Salvatorelli in the Harvard Theological Review, remained the only contribution offered by an Italian scholar to an international audience. A much greater impact had fictional works by Italian Authors such as the film Christus <Christ> by Giulio Antamoro (1916) and particularly, "La storia di Cristo <The Story of Christ>" by Giovanni Papini (1921), which was translated in dozens of languages and enjoyed great popularity.

After the war the "Vita di Cristo <Life of Christ> (1940) by Italian scholar and priest Giuseppe Ricciotti was translated into English, German and French. For its moderate openness to the scholarly method, and its apologetic conclusions, the work was well received in Catholic circles of the time. No other major product of Italian scholarship was made available to international audience in the second half of the 20th century, even after the growth of interest in the field in Italy after the Vatican Council. Once again, the major impact of the Italian school came through some works of fiction, notably, the international success of two movies, "Il Vangelo secondo Matteo <The Gospel according to Matthew>" by Pierpaolo Paolini (1964) and "Jesus of Nazareth (1977), by Franco Zeffirelli.

At the turn of the 21st century Italian scholars have been more active internationally, some of them have got positions in international Universities, such as Gabriele Boccaccini and Edmondo Lupieri in the United States, Enrico Norelli in Switzerland, and Pierluigi Piovanelli in Canada. Some are directly involved in international groups with the Society of Biblical Literature, such as Mauro Pesce.

In 1998 Enrico Norelli edited a volume in French on the Historical Jesus and in 2005 Pierluigi Piovanelli published a review article in English on the history of research in the field. In 2010 the Italian Journal Henoch hosted a conversation (edited by Pierpaolo Bertalotto, Gabriele Boccaccini and James H. Charlesworth) among some of the most distinguished international specialists, including the Italian Scholars Gabriele Boccaccini, Giorgio Jossa, Mauro Pesce and Paolo Sacchi.