Will Wiley

So when Bart Ehrman ridicules mythics does that mean he part of the hegemony?
When he does so mythics are meeting friction for their views.

Here is a problem I see. We are told that "the hegemony" exerts such pressure that people believe in a historical jesus. We are also told that one need a different vantage point to "see" "the hegemony".
Bart Ehrman certianly has a different vantage point, having had to leave his religion. Anyone who has done that will be aware of the difficulties it presents.
Yet Bart, with his new vantage point, is quite happy on the basis of the evidence with more training than most here, to accept a historical jesus.

Where is the hegemony?

Vorkosigan

All that long juicy post and this is the best you can do? You're losing style points here, WW.

Vorkosigan

Will Wiley

I was editing my post as you replied. So I'd like to see your answer. Can you explain why you "see" it but Bart doesn't?

tanya

What were his duties at MBL?

Question: Would Abraham have been hired to work at the nation's most prestigious marine biology laboratory, arguably, the top research facility in the world for this type of investigation, had he indicated during the interview, that although the scientists working in that particular laboratory were studying behaviour, seeking traits to indicate clues regarding evolutionary adjustments, a task for which keen observational motivation is paramount, he himself believed, contrarily, in the big bang theory of earth's creation with concurrent arrival of every extant species, instantaneously?

Would "Paul" have hired a scribe, to copy Romans, Galatians, et al, if that scribe had informed him of his belief, as an orthodox Jew, that writing about a false deity, Jesus, purported son of YHWH, for missionary transmission to people living throughout the Roman empire, would constitute blasphemy, committed by him, the scribe?

tanya

1. You have no idea what Bart, or anyone else, thinks.
2. You have no idea whether Bart Ehrman accepts or rejects the notion of historical Jesus.
3. You have no idea whether or not Bart has "left his religion".

Bart Ehrman makes money, a lot of money, selling books. He writes books, and more books, and yet more books.

His books are internally inconsistent. On the one hand he acknowledges that forgery abounds, on the other he is perfectly content, in his writing, to use works acknowledged to represent forgery, as a basis for arguing one position or another.
He is a will o' the wisp.

I don't know. Do you observe a desire to promote hegemony as a motivation for Bart Ehrman? I do not. I think he writes whatever helps promote sales of his books.

Something like 60% of USA citizens believe in the divinity of Jesus. That's a large audience. Maybe 0.1% of USA citizens ardently oppose Christianity. That's a small quantity of people.

If one can disparage a hated minority, using an intellectual veneer, to create the impression among that 60%, that his writing is not simply a smear, based on dishonesty, but rather an accurate assessment of the evidence, he will have a best seller, AGAIN.

In my opinion, support for, or argument against, hegemony, was the last thing on Bart Ehrman's mind, when he wrote DJE.

Ka-Ching !

J-D

The more widely accepted an opinion is--any opinion--the more frequently people will encounter it. Conversely, opinions seldom held will also be seldom encountered. By the same logic, the expression of opinions far from the majority view (whenever there is one) is likely to encounter more criticism than the expression of opinions concordant with majority views. Whenever there's a majority view, it will have a natural self-reinforcing and self-entrenching tendency, and the greater the majority the stronger the tendency. But it's by no means an insuperable tendency. Majority opinions have lost majority backing before now, and no doubt the same will happen again in the future. The fact that something is a majority opinion does help people to cling to it, but by itself it's not automatically sufficient.

Will Wiley

I've read some of his books. Was he writing someone elses ideas?
I'm sure he does.
I agree he writes too many and nearly all I don't like.

But I don't dislike the guy because I think his books might not be always good. I admire that he had the ability to make what were probably not easy decisions to leave his religion, having done the same myself. I understand the difficluties.

This is just weird, and I'm going to put you on my ignore list, but one point. Bart ehrman as far as Im aware developed his ideas about a historical jesus before he tried to make money out of the idea.
Do you have any evidence he came up with his views in order to make money?

Vorkosigan

Why do you waste my time asking questions you already know the answer to?

Vorkosigan

Will Wiley

I'd avoid answering if I were you too.

spin

This has already answered. It is through perspective that some of the values of hegemony can be evaluated for what they are.

Someone who is inducted into the institution is likely to defend the institution more strongly than others. They have a carrot to keep them sustaining the received values. Someone outside the institution is marginally less likely to reproduce those values.

[T2]Bart Ehrman:

He began studying the Bible and its original languages at the Moody Bible Institute and is a 1978 graduate of Wheaton College in Illinois. He received his PhD and M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, where he studied under Bruce Metzger.[/T2]
That's a ten year commitment to sustaining the values of the institution. Is he likely to repudiate his training?