'Many Christians who find themselves affirming the reality of the resurrection gladly and meaningfully every Easter morning may find themselves in a more reflective moment not knowing quite what to make of the resurrection stories in the gospels.' This is the audience for which Professor Perrin has written. He discusses the narratives in the first three gospels, not so much asking which of them is historically correct, as, what is Mark trying to say to us by deliberately omitting appearance stories, or Matthew by locating the major appearance in Galilee, or Luke by limiting appearances to the Jerusalem area ? These are the questions that matter because they are questions about the motivations and convictions of the evangelists themselves, and unless they are understood and thought about, it will prove impossible to see what the evangelists are really trying to say.
