User:Vanished user 2345/CMT Material/Con Sources

Michael Grant (1914 – 2004)

 * Education: Classics at Trinity College, Cambridge


 * Position: Professor of humanities at University of Edinburgh; Vice-chancellor at the Queen's University of Belfast and University of Khartoum


 * Relevant specialization: Ancient history


 * Relevant publications:
 * Ancient History (Barnes & Noble 1951)
 * The Ancient Mediterranean (Littlehampton Book Services 1969)
 * The Ancient Historians (Littlehampton Book Services 1970)
 * The Jews in the Roman World (Macmillan 1973)
 * Paul (Scribner 1976)
 * Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels (Scribner 1977)
 * The History of Ancient Israel (Littlehampton Book Services 1984)
 * St Peter: A Biography (Barnes Noble 1994)


 * Basic position: "To sum up, modern critical methods fail to support the Christ-myth theory. It has 'again and again been answered and annihilated by first-rank scholars'. In recent years 'no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non-historicity of Jesus' -- or at any rate very few, and they have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very abundant, evidence to the contrary."


 * Views of others:

Graeme Clarke (born 1934)

 * Education: BA University of Auckland, MA in Latin and ancient Greek from University of Auckland, BA in classics from Oxford University, Litt.D University of Melbourne


 * Position: Emeritus Professor of history, Australian National University


 * Relevant specialization: Ancient history and classics


 * Relevant publications:
 * Judaism & Hellenism in Early Christianity (Liturgical Press 1988)
 * Reading the Past in Late Antiquity (Australian National University Press 1990)
 * "The Origins and Spread of Christianity", Cambridge Ancient History (Cambridge University Press 1996)
 * Identities in the Eastern Mediterranean in Antiquity (University of Sydney Press 1998)


 * Basic position:"Frankly, I know of no ancient historian/biblical historian who would have a twinge of doubt about the existence of a Jesus Christ - the documentary evidence is simply overwhelming."


 * Views of others:

Graham Stanton (1940-2009)

 * Education: Bachelor of Divinity and MA, University of Otago; PhD Westminster College, Cambridge, a theological college of the United Reformed Church affiliated with the University of Cambridge through the Cambridge Theological Federation.


 * Position: Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge


 * Relevant specialization: New Testament; Gospels, particularly Matthew's


 * Relevant publications:
 * Jesus of Nazareth in New Testament Preaching (Cambridge University Press 1974)
 * The Gospels and Jesus'' (Oxford University Press 1989)
 * Gospel for a New People: Studies in Matthew (T. & T. Clark Publishers 1992)
 * Gospel Truth? New Light on Jesus and the Gospels (Zondervan 1997)
 * Jesus and Gospel (Cambridge University Press 2004)


 * Basic position: "Today, nearly all historians, whether Christians or not, accept that Jesus existed and that the gospels contain plenty of valuable evidence which has to be weighed and assessed critically. There is general agreement that, with the possible exception of Paul, we know far more about Jesus of Nazareth than about any first or second century Jewish or pagan religious teacher."


 * Views of others:

Robert E. Van Voorst

 * Education: BA Hope College, MDiv Western Theological Seminary, STM & PhD in New Testament, Union Theological Seminary--an institution affiliated with Columbia University


 * Position: Professor of New Testament Studies, Western Theological Seminary


 * Relevant specialization: New Testament


 * Relevant publications:
 * Jesus Outside the New Testament (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing 2000)
 * Reading the New Testament Today (2004)
 * The Jesus Legend: A Case for the Historical Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus Tradition (co-author, 2007)


 * Basic position: "The theory of Jesus' nonexistence is now effectively dead as a scholarly question... The nonhistoricity thesis has always been controversial, and it has consistently failed to convince scholars of many disciplines and religious creeds... Biblical scholars and classical historians now regard it as effectively refuted."


 * Views of others:

Bart D. Ehrman (born 1955)

 * Education: BA Wheaton College (Illinois); M.Div and PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary


 * Position: Chair of the Department of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill


 * Relevant specialization: New Testament and early Christianity


 * Relevant publications (see his bibliography)
 * Didymus the Blind and the Text of the Gospels  (Society of Biblical Literature 1987)
 * The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research'' (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company 1995)
 * The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture (Oxford University Press 1996)
 * After the New Testament: A Reader in Early Christianity (Oxford University Press 1998)
 * Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium (Oxford University Press 1999)
 * The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings (Oxford University Press 2003)
 * Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code: A Historian Reveals What We Really Know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine (Oxford University Press 2004)
 * Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (HarperSanFrancisco 2005)
 * Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them). HarperCollins 2009.


 * Basic position: "I think the evidence is just so overwhelming that Jesus existed, that it's silly to talk about him not existing. I don't know anyone who is a responsible historian, who is actually trained in the historical method, or anybody who is a biblical scholar who does this for a living, who gives any credence at all to any of this."


 * Views of others:

John Dickson

 * Education: B Theology (Hons); PhD in ancient history from Macquarie University


 * Position: Senior Research Fellow of the Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University


 * Relevant specialization: Ancient history, historical Jesus, New Testament.


 * Relevant publications:
 * Mission-Commitment in Ancient Judaism and in the Pauline Communities (Mohr Siebeck 2003)
 * Christ Files: How Historians Know What They Know about Jesus (Christian Education Publications 2006)
 * A Spectator's Guide to Jesus: An Introduction to the Man from Nazareth (Lion 2008)
 * Jesus: A Short Life (Lion 2008)


 * Basic position: "In fact, I doubt that any of us could name a professional biblical or ancient historian who thinks Jesus’ existence is still debatable. Much more representative of the state of the question is the comment of Professor Ed Sanders of Duke University, one of the leading historical Jesus scholars of the last twenty years and no friend of Christian apologetics: ‘There are no substantial doubts about the general course of Jesus’ life: when and where he lived, approximately when and where he died, and the sort of thing that he did during his public activity.’ I think this sentiment would be endorsed by virtually everyone writing in the field today." (In a paper presented to the Society for the Study of Early Christianity)

Views of others:

Paul W. Barnett

 * Education: MA University of Sydney, ThL Australian College of Theology, BD Hons, and PhD London University.


 * Position: visiting fellow in ancient history at Macquarie University and Research Professor at Regent College


 * Relevant specialization: ancient history, New Testament


 * Relevant publications:
 * Jesus and the Logic of History (Eerdmans 1997)
 * Jesus & the Rise of Early Christianity (InterVarsity Press 1999)
 * Behind the Scenes of the New Testament (InterVarsity Press 1990)
 * Is The New Testament Reliable? (InterVarsity Press 2005)
 * The Birth Of Christianity The First Twenty Years (Eerdmans 2005)
 * Paul, Missionary of Jesus (Eerdmans 2008)
 * Finding the Historical Christ (Eerdmans 2009)
 * Messiah: Jesus - the Evidence of History (InterVarsity Press 2009)


 * Basic position:"Reputable ancient historians irrespective of religious persuasion know that Jesus was a genuine figure of history."


 * Views of others:

L. Michael White

 * Education: BA (1971), MA Abilene Christian University; MDiv Yale Divinity School, MA, MPhil, PhD Yale University


 * Position: Professor of classics and religious studies, University of Texas at Austin


 * Relevant specialization: New Testament, Christian origins


 * Relevant publications:
 * From Jesus to Christianity (Harper Collins 2004)
 * Scripting Jesus: The Gospel Authors as Storytellers (Harper Collins 2010)


 * Basis position: "That Jesus was a real figure of first century Judean history is no longer much questioned, as it once was. Later sources from opposing camps-Romans, Jews, Christians-show that all sides acknowledged both his life and his death."


 * Views of others:

Others

 * Familiar Stranger: an Introduction to Jesus of Nazareth (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), by Michael James McClymond. McClymond holds a PhD from the University of Chicago, is a professor at the University of St. Louis, and has published books through Oxford University Press, Johns Hopkins University Press, Eerdmans, Greenwood, and others. The book cited here is advertized as a text book by the publisher, was said to give a "comprehensive overview" by Publishers Weekly, was positively reviewed by Booklist, and appears on syllabi at such schools as Boston College, Westmont College, Queen's University, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and the University of Aberdeen.


 * Lost in Transmission?: What We Can Know About the Words of Jesus, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007) by Nicholas Perrin. Perrin holds a PhD from Marquette University, is a professor at Wheaton College (a regionally accredited PhD granting institution), has published works through Brill, Walter de Gruyter, Westminister John Knox, and others, and is a world renowned expert of the Gospel of Thomas. The book cited is also used as a text book at at least one seminary.


 * Hellenism And Christianity, (London: G. Allen & Unwin, 1930), by Edwyn Robert Bevan. Bevan was a professor at King's College at the University of London, a fellow of the British Academy, and he delivered the prestigious Gifford Lectures in 1933 and 1934.


 * The Incarnation, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) with the relevant contribution by N. T. Wright. Wright's credentials are almost too numerous to mention. Sufficed to say that Newsweek once referred to him as "perhaps the world's leading New Testament scholar". The book itself, given its publisher, shouldn't need much else to establish its reliability.


 * The Infidel Guy Show interview of Bart Ehrman (2008). Ehrman holds a PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary, an institution Richard Dawkins describes as being in the "world-beating class at the top" of school quality in The God Delusion. Ehrman is also the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has published through Oxford University Press, Harvard University Press, Harper-Collins and Eerdmans. Like Wright, his name is instantly recognizable within biblical scholarship.  I grant that his comments were made in the midst of a fairly obscure podcast (The Infidel Guy Show), but WP:FRINGE allows scholarly responses to fringe theories to be drawn from "alternative venues from those that are typically considered reliable sources".  Far from being "off the cuff", as you've said before, Ehrman indicates in the interview that he's asked whether he believes in an historical Jesus often, and he's made similarly dismissive comments regarding the CMT in print venues as well.


 * Michael R. Licona: I think he's okay, but given that he is likely the weakest link in the RS chain here, I'd be willing to drop him if it will get you to agree to the compromise. Think of this as a gesture of good faith; with jbolden1517 retired and Sophia on-board with Akhilleus, Bill, and me, I don't think your agreement is really necessary to declare consensus (4 vs. 1)--but it'd be nice if we all agreed.


 * XTalk discussion with John Dominic Crossan (2000). Crossan holds a doctorate from Maynooth College, is the Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at DePaul University, has published books through Harper-Collins, Fortress, Westminster John Knox, T & T Clark, and others, and regularly appears on PBS documentaries concerning Jesus. Again, the medium of the comments isn't normal for high-quality Wikipedia articles, but, as with Ehrman, Crossan's comments here are permissible despite their appearing in an "alternative venue" according to WP:FRINGE.


 * "Mythicism and Paradigm Shifts", from Exploring Our Matrix (2010), by James F. McGrath. McGrath holds a PhD from the University of Durham (England), is the Clarence L. Goodwin Chair of New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, has published works through Cambridge University Press, University of Illinois Press, de Gruyter, T. & T. Clark, and the Society of Biblical Literature. Again, yes, his comments here are from a blog article, but not only does WP:FRINGE allow for this (as we've seen) but WP:IRS allows blog articles when "produced by an established expert on the topic of the article whose work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable third-party publications."  As an expert on New Testament literature and history, McGrath qualifies.

And finally...


 * Jesus as a Figure in History: How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee, (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1998), by Mark Allan Powell. Powell holds a PhD from the prestigious Union Theological Seminary, is the Robert and Phyllis Leatherman Professor of New Testament at Trinity Lutheran Seminary (operated by the mainline-liberal ELCA), has published through Fortress, Eerdmans, Abingdon, Harper-Collins, Westminster John Knox, SPCK, and on and on, and he's the chairman of the Society of Biblical Literature’s Historical Jesus section. The book itself is a mainstay of the field, it seems. It was positively reviewed by Publishers Weekly; it's been recommended as "key" by an Oxford Professor; and it appears on syllabi at a huge number of schools including Fuller Theological Seminary, Rhodes College, St. Olaf College, The University of Denver, and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.