Historical Jesus

I just sent the following email to a few friends of mine.

Just stumbled across an interesting little link.

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/

I haven't had a chance to dig to deep, but from glancing around, it
looks to be as advertised. But, the fun thing is a link at the bottom.
I've been thinking now and then, over the past couple of months that I
need to pick up my studies of the historical jesus again. But, I've
been lost in exactly how to go about it. Which researchers may prove
fruitful and which won't. This is basically the problem that I had
when I put this research down. And there, at the bottom of the page is
this link

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/theories.html

After I had a chance to glance through the second link, and do a quick glance on the first two writers I was struck by my reactions. The first two writers mention in the link are both members of the Jesus Seminar. A very liberal group of researchers, who have been acccused of forcing scripture to meet thier needs. Now, of course the arguement can be made that all such research is subject to this same problem. And any attempt at pure objectivity is fruitless in this search. But, what I found most interesting was my reaction to this knowledge, and my reaction to other people I have come across.

I was raised Irish Catholic. And while I do not attend services with any kind of regularity, I don't object to going with my parent's when I happen to be visiting them on Sunday morning. Over the past couple of years I have fashioned myself as a heritic of sorts. But, the degree to which this is true is suspect.

I would not consider myself orthodox, I openly question Papal authority, and have no misgivings about finding a personal relationship with god. But, at the same time, I am instincively suspicious of the Jesus Seminar. This, in and of itself is not much, since even liberal scholars are suspect of them. But, my instinctive suspect also extends to Protestant scholars. And I am instincevly accepting of John P. Meier, a Catholic priest.

A portion of this is knee jerk reaction. Catholicism is familiar to me. And I feel more comfortable in my ability to weed through Catholic research. But, I wonder how much is dogmatism in my belief structures.

I have adopted elements of other religions into the way in which I deal with the world, but if I'm honest with myself, my acctual spiritual belief structure is still very Catholic in nature.

A thought that just occured to me. How much of my reluctance to get back into historical Jesus research is fear of purchasing useless books or falling prey to well written, but dodgey theories. And how much of that reluctance, is a fear to challenge my beliefs? How much is fear at what I may find? Obviously, with this question proposed, it must now be addressed. I must now go forward and test my beliefs. But, what will I find? And how will it change things?

Posted by Matt at August 12, 2003 10:08 PM