User:Vanished user 2345/CMT Material/Pro Sources

G.A. Wells (born 1926)

 * Education: Degrees in German, philosophy, and natural science. Phd, specialization unknown.


 * Position: Professor emeritus of German, Birkbeck College, London


 * Relevant specialization: none


 * Relevant publications:
 * The Jesus of the Early Christians (Pemberton 1971)
 * Did Jesus exist? (Prometheus Books 1987)
 * The Jesus Myth (Open Court 1998)
 * Religious Postures: Essays on Modern Christian Apologists and Religious Problems (Open Court 1988)
 * The Historical Evidence for Jesus (Prometheus 1988)
 * Who Was Jesus?: A Critique of the New Testament Record (Open Court 1989)
 * The Jesus Legend (Open Court 1996)
 * Can We Trust the New Testament? (Open Court 2003)
 * Belief and Make-Believe (Open Court 2003)
 * Cutting Jesus Down to Size (Open Court 2009)


 * Basic position: At one time Wells doubted the existence of the historcal Jesus, though he acknowledged that such as a view is "is today almost totally rejected". He has since come to believe that Q is early evidence and now accepts a minimalistic historical Jesus.


 * Views of others: Graham Stanton regarded Well's arguments as the most sophisticated of the Christ myth theorists, though he rejected them. Michael Martin argues that Wells's argument is "sound", though it "may seem ad hoc and arbitrary" and "is controversial and not widely accepted". Robert E. Van Voorst, while noting that Wells was "probably the most able advocate of the nonhistoricity theory", has said that he advocated the theory "not for objective scholarly reasons, but for highly tendentious, antireligious purposes."

Tom Harpur (born 1929)

 * Education: BA from University of Toronto, BA & MA (Oxon) in classics from Oxford University


 * Position: columnist for The Toronto Star; formerly (late 1960s) professor of New Testament at Wycliffe College, Toronto, a theological college of the Anglican Church of Canada affiliated with the University of Toronto through the Toronto School of Theology


 * Relevant specialization: New Testament


 * Relevant publications:
 * The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light (Thomas Allen 2004)


 * Basic position: Harpur argues that there is no evidence that Jesus of Nazareth ever lived and that the details of Jesus' life and message were derived from Egyptian religions.


 * Views of others: W. Ward Gasque has said that "[v]irtually none of the alleged evidence for the views put forward in The Pagan Christ is documented by reference to original sources" and "[m]any quotations are taken out of context and interpreted in a very different sense from what their author originally meant". He further states that Harpur "has based The Pagan Christ on the work of self-appointed 'scholars' who seek to excavate the literary and archaeological resources of the ancient world the same way an avid crossword puzzle enthusiast mines dictionaries and lists of words. In short, Harpur's book tells us more about himself than it does about the origins of Christianity". Terry Donaldson, Harpur's successor at Wycliffe College, has written that The Pagan Christ "is an easy target in many ways" and "a textbook example" of "parallelomania".

Michael Martin (born 1932)

 * Education: Phd in philosophy from Harvard University


 * Position: Professor emeritus of philosophy, Boston University


 * Relevant specialization: philosophy of religion


 * Relevant publications:
 * The Case Against Christianity (Temple University Press 1991)


 * Basic position: Martin argues that a strong prima facie challenge can be made to the argument for Jesus's existence, though he acknowledges that such a denial is "not widely accepted".


 * Views of others: Gary Habermas describes Martin as "[o]ne of the only scholars to follow G. A. Wells" and says that "Martin's theses fail to account for the available data at a very basic level." Habermas also draws attention to Martin's failure to accurately respresent the views of the scholars that Martin himself quotes in ostensible support of his views.

Earl Doherty (born 1941)

 * Education: BA in ancient history


 * Position: none


 * Relevant specialization: history


 * Relevant publications:
 * "The Jesus Puzzle: Pieces in a Puzzle of Christian Origins", Journal of Higher Criticism (1997);
 * The Jesus Puzzle (Canadian Humanist Publications 1999);


 * Basic position: Doherty argues that Jesus never existed as a historical person; non-historical mystical speculations were progressively historicized and personified over time. He admits, though, that mainstream scholarship dismisses the thesis and that "[m]ost of their comment[s]... are limited to expressions of contempt."


 * Views of others: Ben Witherington has said that Doherty's efforts are "unhistorical and even anti-historical" and that "Mr. Doherty unfortunately is a mere polemicist. He has not done his historical homework, he clearly has not bothered to read the broad range of NT scholarship, and of course he comes at his study with a strong ax to gring." John Dominic Crossan has compared Doherty to a moon-landing skeptic. Paula Fredriksen has said that Doherty "seems to be working very hard to create a straw man that he can then begin to knock down." Hector Avalos has stated that Doherty's case seems "plausible", but R. Joseph Hoffmann has said that Doherty's primary work, The Jesus Puzzle, is "qualitatively and academically far inferior to anything so far written on the subject."

Robert M. Price (born 1954)

 * Education: BA from Montclair State University, MTS in New Testament from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Phd in Systematic Theology from Drew University, and another PhD in New Testament, also from Drew


 * Position: Professor of theology and scriptural studies at the unaccredited Johnnie Coleman Theological Seminary & professor of biblical criticism at the unaccredited Center for Inquiry Institute; fellow of the Jesus Seminar


 * Relevant specialization: New Testament


 * Relevant publications:
 * The Widow Traditions in Luke-Acts (Society of Biblical Literature 1997)
 * Deconstructing Jesus (Prometheus Books 2000)
 * The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man (Prometheus Books 2003)
 * The Pre-Nicene New Testament (Signature Books 2006)
 * Jesus Is Dead (American Atheist Press 2007)
 * The Historical Jesus: Five Views (with other authors) (InterVarsity Press 2009)


 * Basic position: Price feels that the evidence for the existence of the historical Jesus is deeply ambiguous, at best, and that to postulate the existence of such a person is thus "arbitrary". Nevertheless, Price admits that New Testament scholars regard the Christ myth theory with "universal disdain".


 * Views of others: James D. G. Dunn has characterized Price's arguments as "sad"; Tony Costa has said that Price's work "is not a serious discussion of the issues among one’s scholarly peers but rather comes across as an extremely bitter rant"; Craig A. Evans has said that "[v]irtually no scholar trained in history will agree with Price's negative conclusions", and that his "work in the gospels is overpowered by a philosophical mindset that is at odds with historical research—of any kind."

Timothy Freke (born 1959) & Peter Gandy (writting together)

 * Education: Timothy Freke- BA in philosophy; Peter Gandy- MA in classical civilization


 * Position: none


 * Relevant specialization: Timothy Freke- none; Peter Gandy- history


 * Relevant publications:
 * The Jesus Mysteries (Three Rivers Press 2001)
 * Jesus and the Lost Goddess (Three Rivers Press 2002)
 * The Laughing Jesus (Three Rivers Press 2006)


 * Basic position: Freke and Gandy argue that Jesus never existed; Gnostic belief in a purely mythical Jesus was the original form of Christianity which was supplanted, suppressed, and then covered-up by the Catholic Church.


 * Views of others: When asked about Christ myth theory authors, including Freke and Gandy, Bart Ehrman replied: "This current craze that Christianity was a mystery religion like these other mystery religions-the people who are saying this are almost always people who know nothing about the mystery religions; they've read a few popular books, but they're not scholars of mystery religions. The reality is, we know very little about mystery religions-the whole point of mystery religions is that they're secret! So I think it's crazy to build on ignorance in order to make a claim like this." Likewise, when N. T. Wright was asked to debate either Freke or Gandy concerning their thesis on television, he replied that this "was like asking a professional astronomer to debate with the authors of a book claiming the moon was made of green cheese."

D. M. Murdock

 * Education: BLA in classics from Franklin and Marshall College


 * Position: none


 * Relevant specialization: classical literature


 * Relevant publications:
 * The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold (Adventures Unlimited Press 1999)
 * multiple self-published books


 * Basic position: Murdock believes that there never was a historical Jesus; "Jesus" began as an amalgam of astrological symbolism and pagan myths which were later historicized.


 * Views of others: Even fellow Christ myth theory advocate, Robert M. Price has said Murdock "is quick to state as bald fact what turn out to be, once one chases down her sources, either wild speculation or complex inference from a chain of complicated data open to many interpretations... The Christ Conspiracy is a random bag of (mainly recycled) eccentricities, some few of them worth considering, most dangerously shaky, many outright looney."