Brian63

Recently I have been watching "The God Who Wasn't There" about Jesus Mythicism (JM) and, like many here but not all, think that the case for JM is underestimated both in the general public and in scholarly circles. How can we improve that, and open up this new theory to people that have never heard of it or dismiss it too quickly without really examining it?

Some popular periodicals and magazines routinely cover topics in religion, and so I am hoping that JM can get additional exposure there. Off the top of my head, I am thinking of Time and Newsweek. Newsweek in particular has had a number of religious-themed cover stories in the last several months (a story about religion in corporate America, another about Mormonism, and a couple others).

I would like to send an email suggesting to them a story about the newest craze: Jesus Mythicism.

What should be said in that email? Why should a magazine be willing to research and cover this kind of story?

This email would mention different starting points for a reporter, such as:

• History of Jesus Mythicism vs. Historicism
• The most recent case: Earl Doherty, the "Jesus Puzzle," and "Challenging the Verdict" (rebuttal to Lee Strobel's best-selling apologetic)
• "The God Who Wasn't There" documentary

What else could be said to get a reporter/editor to consider this a worthy topic, and to get a story rolling about it?

Brian

Malachi151

BTW, here is an even better website:

http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/

Transplanar

It was an interesting documentary, though a couple of the Biblical quotes used in it were taken out of context.

lpetrich

I think that Earl Doherty's Jesus-Puzzle site is the best such site I've ever seen; also good are Robert M. Price's pages, though he's more of an agnostic on this question.

Brian Flemming is the author of "The God Who Wasn't There", about which there are some threads here, like this one; he's working on another Jesus-myth movie, The Beast, due out June 6, 2006 (6-6-06, get it?).

It's purely fictional, however, and a bit like The Da Vinci Code. In it, an Xian-school student discovers that her father, a biblical scholar, has mysteriously disappeared. She investigates, and discovers that he had evidence that Jesus Christ had never existed.

GakuseiDon

In scholarly circles: perhaps it is time that the Christ Mythers start trying to publish in scholarly circles in order to get that notice? Richard Carrier may well be the first to try.

For the general public: Brian Flemming is planning to realise a movie on 06-Jun-06 called "The Beast", which has a Da Vinci Code-esque plot where a young woman finds out that the Church knows there was no historical Christ, so the Church tries to kill her. This should at least bring in some public attention.

Vorkosigan

Hahahaha. Five big ones won't even get you space to debate in a non-scholarly journal. Sure, Don.

Michael

GakuseiDon

How much do scholars usually have to pay, Vork?

Vorkosigan

It wasn't Doherty who offered to pay, Don, but a third party who wanted to see the debate. The point is that if a non-refereed journal won't accept even a debate that is being funded by an outsider, whatever makes you think that something on Jesus Mythicism can make it into a major Biblical studies journal.

I do intend to take a crack at a major journal this year, but it won't be about Jesus Mythicism.

And BTW, there is a peer reviewed journal that focuses on mythicism/skepticism, the Journal of Higher Criticism.

And finally, I don't want to break your heart, but there are journals that in order to get accepted, you have to "pay" -- you have to subscribe to them. I've run into this problem in my other life where I publish academically.

Michael

GakuseiDon

That's exciting! No doubt Doherty has published a few articles there. Can you point me to their discussion of his book, or reviews of any of the articles he has published there on his mythicist position?

Vorkosigan

ED has one or two articles there. here's the old URL where there are plenty of articles.

http://www.depts.drew.edu/jhc/

Here's the new one:

http://www.atheistalliance.org/jhc/index.htm

and the author index where yes, ED has two articles.

http://www.atheistalliance.org/jhc/JHCindex.htm

Michael