Soul Invictus

Who is this group and what are their credentials? Is anyone familiar with their work?

Secular Pinoy

You can start by perusing their website. i have read books by some of their members (Crossan, Borg, Funk). They cast ballots on Jesus' words and deeds, to see what the consensus is on the authenticity of each, then try to recontruct his life from there. They have concluded that Jesus was non-eschatological/apocalyptic, and a teacher of wisdom.

Rick Sumner

They're either the most acclaimed or the most condemned group in the "Third Quest for the Historical Jesus," depending on who you ask. More likely a little of both. Members have ranged from the Methodology oriented Crossan author of The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant(which I always recommend, but will probably never agree with), to the crackpot Barbara Thiering (Okay, maybe crackpot wasn't harsh enough. . .), author of The Gospel Jesus Wrote (no, it's a real book, honest :banghead: ) and pretty well everything in between.

Their first work, The Five Gospels was a compilation of the result of votes, carried out by colored beads (as Secular Pinoy just noted), on the words of Jesus, and which of them could be considered authentic. The results, as should be expected, sparked tremendous debate. Their second major work was along the same vein, only it focussed instead on the Acts of Jesus, which was--appropriately enough, its title.

Regards,
Rick

Yuri Kuchinsky

There was a time, years ago, when I considered them as the best and the brightest... but I guess I was a bit naive then.

Now I think of their efforts as just the same old junk, slightly refurbished.

But I suppose they've taken the Gospel of Thomas seriously, so this is just about the only thing to their credit. And yet, they still completely ignore the Semitic textual tradition of the gospels...

Yuri.