Ted Hoffman

Those who know about the Big Tent Strategy know that it was meant to close the ranks among the divergent ID brands and sought to polish YECers whilst housing rabid creationists and the creationists that opted to adorn cheap tuxedos (the so-called Intelligent Design Proponents). In the process, too much theology came into the tent and ID proponents recently got a bloody nose from the Dover trial.

In his open letter to Jim West, among other salient issues, Vork mentions the Big Tent approach that conservative scholars use because theological works that consider Jesus as a divine being are treated as respectable scholarship and are uncritically accepted into the ever-increasing family of HJ works.

I am thinking we need to have a small tent strategy. We recently had The Empty Tomb which featured Price and Carrier among other respectable scholars. TET, in a sense, shows that we have a growing galaxy of scholars and Laymen who are capable of producing serious works of scholarship.

I think it is time we set up a site like talkreason whose purpose whould be to act as a definitive source/guide of articles related to a mythical Jesus. Here is where people would put up critical reviews to works like Tabor's work and so on.
There are a few challenges we may encounter in our quest to form a formidable opposition to conservative scholarship.

1. The Paucity of Credentialed MJ scholars - besides Price, Doughty and Carrier, we do not have much else. We need credentialed people with respectable credentials.
   
2. Lack of agreement on the MJ hypothesis - JJ Lowder (IIUC) believes a HJ existed. Carrier does not agree with Doherty etc. Setting up ground rules under such circumstances would be difficult. How would editors consider Atwill's work vis a vis Carrier's work?
3. How to bring largely OT scholars like Thomas L. Thompson (The Messiah Myth) and Lemche into the fold.
4. How to ensure jokers like Archaya S and Freke and Gandy stay out.
5. Set up a means of getting laymen educated in Greek and other related subjects.
6. Have a Place for Laymen who have published like Harold Leidner (The Fabrication of the Christ Myth) and Joe Atwill (Caesar's Messiah). How shall we treat such works? Especially vis a vis Doherty's The Jesus Puzzle? Which one is more respectable?
7. Have a strong editorial team that will not allow garbage to pass through. What exactly is garbage? How do you get people to agree that the entire Mark is made up of chiasms or the typological treatment Atwill gives the NT?
   

What do you think? Any ideas? Lets Brainstorm here guys.