Peter Kirby

While I'm trying to get people to write reviews for my site, I thought I might give those with mythicist leanings something to dissect.

This book is not as important as Doherty's, so I'm going to make the offer to just the first person to take up the challenge providing that:

1. You have read over a dozen books on early Christianity.
2. You agree to write a critical review within 6 months.

The book is The Evidence for Jesus by R. T. France, recently reprinted. The book is pro-HJ, but concludes that there is little independent confirmation outside the NT. Bede once recommended it.

best,
Peter Kirby

Cretinist

Hmm...not to seem greedy, but could I take up this challenge as well? I'm assuming you're buying this book also? I'm so poor...

1. I've read Gospel Fictions by Randel Helms, The Historical Evidence for Jesus and Did Jesus Exist by G. A. Wells,The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ by Gary Habermas (I didn't think your review was a critical as it should have been. He clearly misunderstands Wells and Michael Martin), and The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined by David Strauss. I also own Brown's Introduction to the New Testament, but I've only read about half of it (not exactly light reading). Does that count?

2. I'd gladly write a critical review.

Cretinist

*smacks forehead*

I completely forgot that I finished Robert Price's Deconstructing Jesus about 2 weeks ago. I wasn't nearly as impressed with it as Vorkosigan.

Peter Kirby

Come on, Cretinist, give someone else a chance.

Besides, reviewing Doherty is no trifle. I wouldn't want to load you up with too much work.

I wonder if Vorkosigan or Iasion or Toto is up for it? I'll ship to Taiwan.

best,
Peter Kirby

Vorkosigan

LOL. Way too many irons in the fire. I owe Celsus a piece on inferential and observation science, I am still gathering stuff for a piece on methodology, and I am writing two articles for publication with academics here in Taiwan, plus my usual editing and translation and teaching load.

What did you not like about Price, Cretinist?


Vorkosigan

Ted Hoffman

Mouth-watering challenge <slurps his dripping saliva>

I get knocked out by condition no 1.

Toto

I've ordered my own copy from Amazon (only $4.95) along with Frank Zindler's book. I'll see if I have anything to say about it.

Cretinist

The main problem I have with it is that much of the book isn't exactly readable. Plowing through 30 pages of quotes from Sufi texts and the NT trying to look for dissimilarity is absolutely boring, not to mention seemingly pointless. Perhaps Price thinks what 10th century Muslim mystics had to say about Jesus has any relevance at all to the origins of Christianity, but he's probably the only one. At least, the possibility of a connection seems very dubious to me.

The chapter on René Girard ideas seemed absurd in the extreme. I've always been hyper-skeptical of similar sounding notions like Jung's archetypes, and it just strikes me as unverifiable, unfalsifiable psycho-babble.

In the end, it seems like Price wrote the book simply to throw things at various NT scholars to see what happens to stick to them.

Peter Kirby

Uh, it looks like I've caused the book to go out of stock. I will post here again if/when I see it become available again.

best,
Peter Kirby

Celsus

Funny, I never took him to be serious--merely showing how silly it is to try to extract any history from a myth (Girardian analysis), and how radically it would alter a well-known story completely using Girard's absurd methodology. But then again, it's been a few years since I read that book.

Joel