In our programme of missionary training at the Selly Oak Colleges it is our custom to introduce the students at an early stage to something of the wide variety of ways in which Christ is pictured in different cultures. On a wall covered with vivid posters one can see together the Orthodox Pantocrator serenely ruling all the worlds, the Latin American freedom fighter with rifle over his shoulder, the black Christ, the tortured and defeated Victim of the medieval crucifix, and the blue-eyed golden haired boy from the neighbourhood of Dallas, Texas. Beyond these visual reproductions one thinks of the pen-portraits sketched in the innumerable lives of Jesus in the era of liberal protestantism, each reflecting the writer's ideal self-image, all sharing one feature in common—that the Christ portrayed might be a likely candidate for redundancy but an improbable one for crucifixion.

At first sight this article would seem to be a critique of the views of Professor W. Marxsen of Miinster, in that it borrows the English title of one of his books and sets a question mark against it, a thing which he steadfastly refuses to do. However, it will become apparent that it is in fact more complementary to his book, and concentrates more on the points of agreement with the thesis contained in it.

The dissimilarity test is one of the more important criteria used in the revived quest for the historical Jesus. It is the purpose of this paper to examine the dissimilarity test, and to reconsider some aspects of its use.