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?

Links

I've got such a backlog of things. Some are old links that I'm going to throw up here, instead of just leaving them in my inbox, which is getting crowded. The rest are things that Ali Bey's been posting to the Moorish list. I'll try and work through that and get up what I can tonight. For now though, links:

The Labadie Collection - A collection of all kinds of fringe stuff, esspecially leftist writings and images.

An article on the Cult of Hizir in Turkey

Surgical Ordnance - An article that Jesse warns is "a bit on the rose-colored side." Probably shouldn't be taken litterally.

Something I acctually found myself hunting through google one night. Copies of FBI documents concerning thier investigation of the Moorish Science Temple.

The Paradox of African-American Faith - An article about African-American Faith

Pages from some book. These pages detail the meeting between a Sudanese Missionary to the United States: Satti Majid, "Shaykh al-Islam in North America", and the Noble Drew Ali.

An interview with Robert Anton Wilson

A bit on NPR about TAZs

From Far Right To Far Left - And Farther - With Karl Hess - some article about Karl Hess written in 1970. Could be interesting.

Sabaean Mandeans hold baptism in Iraq Tiny sect fearful of future - An article about a sect in Iraq that considers John The Baptist their savior.

Our Moorish Martyr Warren Tartaglia (Walid al-Taha) - A site dedicated to Walid al-Taha, writer of The Hundred Seeds of Beirut.

Keeping The Faith - An article about Wali Uqdah, the prison Iman.

Haitians Hail the `President of Voodoo' - An article on Haiti officially reconizing Voodoo as a legitamit religion.

Scare Tactics, Why are Liberian soldiers wearing fright wigs?

Qiyamat-i Qubra in Alamut - an article about the qiyamat-i qubra.

A short biography of Gibran Khalil Gibran

An interview with Joseph Matheny.

And that's it for the links. I've still got about 30 essays to throw up here, but that will have to wait until another time. Hopefully before the end of the week.