spamandham

A conflict of interest may result in honest results, but do you expect it to generally result in that?

If not, then do you expect it to result in that in this specific instance?

If so, then why?

aa5874

You are contradicting yourself.

You are clealy showing that my statement is logical even with your own hypothethical figures.

This is absolutely amazing.

aa5874

Just tell me how many type of believers you know and I will tell you if I believe you.

Toto

In my hypothetical, what is the likelihood that a NT scholar is a Christian? (Hint: 40%. That's less that 1/2).

aa5874

You are indeed right. I did mis-read your statement. Your hypothetical figures are in your favour.

Now, if I suggest that it is likely that only 20% of non-believers or less are in NT studies, then it would be a different outcome.

And it does not matter if 90% of college students are non-believers, only how many are in NT studies, since only 5% of college students may be in NT studies of which 90% may be believers.

gstafleu

Lacking numbers, that has to be the first hypothesis. Having said that, I suspect--but don't know--that this is not the case. E.g. established scholars tend to be older while those most contributing to secularization tend to be younger (which would make older data more relevant for NT scholars). Further more, it sounds reasonable to me--but I can't back it up--that NT scholars would be drawn more from the Christian population. All of which would make the NT scholar population skewed towards Christianity. IOW, a case can be made that it is reasonable to assume that a majority of NT scholars is indeed Christian. That case is not a slam dunk, but neither can it be dismissed out of hand.

Gerard Stafleu

Lugubert

How would the reasoning in this thread be applicable to OT studies? I don't claim to be a True Scholar(TM), but I'm so far quite open to extend my three semesters up to and including a doctoral thesis. Unless I go for, for example, Sikhism or Buddhism.

Will I be unique in researching a religion that I don't encompass? I hope not. I should rather be more free than believers to draw my own conclusions.

Camio

What about:
- Crossan
- Mack
- Eisenman
- Ehrman
- Helms
- Fredricksen
- Sanders
- Horsley
- Theissen
- Meier
- Vermes

For the last two, Meier is Catholic (a point worth noticing if we have to take into account the recommendations of Dei Verbum) and Vermes is Jewish. I'm interested in the faith of the others if someone knows.

bacht

There are questions about Moses and the Exodus. There are questions about Israelite monarchs before Omri in Samaria. There are questions about the development of the Torah, including the role played by Ezra. An Orthodox Jew might have trouble investigating such issues scientifically.

Toto

Crossan and Mack can be classified as liberal Christians.
Eisenman is Jewish.
Ehrman describes himself as agnostic - an atheist without balls.
Helms - do you mean Randall Helms? I am pretty sure he is not religious.
Fredricksen is Jewish.
E.P. Sanders is described in his wiki entry: "Sanders identifies himself as a "liberal, modernized protestant" in his book "Jesus and Judaism;" fellow scholar John P. Meier calls him a postliberal Protestant."
Horsley and Theissen - I have no information.
Meier is a Catholic Priest.
Vermes was born Jewish, converted as a child to Catholicism, survived the Holocaust, studied for the priesthood, then reasserted his Jewish identity.