Excerpts
"Critical theology has long asked
emphatically if the historical Jesus really
founded a church. Yet it has become
increasingly clear that this question is
posed in the wrong way. It is not much of
an exaggeration to say that Jesus could not
have founded a church since there had long
been one -- God's people, Israel. Jesus
directed his efforts to Israel. He sought
to gather it in view of the coming reign of
God and to make it into the true people of
God. What we now call church is nothing
other than the community of those ready to
live in the people of God, gathered by Jesus
and sanctified by his death. From this
perspective, it is foolish to look to the
historical Jesus for a formal act of
founding the church."
--from the Preface