Earlier this year, I remember there was some hubbub about some texts suggesting that Jesus Christ was a political construct created by Roman scholars to exert some sort of socio-political control over Jewish subjects of Rome, and related cults.
I've always assumed that there was a historical Jesus, and that this person influenced much of western culture for the last... Well, all that Europe and the Americas identify as western culture.
Obviously, my thoughts are very fallible, but I'm curious as to what some good books would be to read up on if I was curious about the idea of the Historical Jesus, either arguing for his existence, or against?
(I'm glancing through the sub's history on this subject, but not seeing anything specifically focusing on good reading materials)
Check out The Historical Figure of Jesus by E.P. Sanders. A bit more on the technical side than Ehrman or Aslan (which are a bit closer to the pop-history category). Sanders is very readable while still keeping a tight historical focus. Not to mention, it's a fairly important book in New Testament studies.
You may want to take a look at the Christianity section of the Booklist, the first several of which deal with the subject of the Historical Jesus. Our FAQ on the historicity of Jesus which has some fantastic answers- the question comes up fairly often.