Description
Book SynopsisThis volume moves beyond the mainstream scholarly scepticism over the Christ of Faith and considers if there is sufficient evidence to establish the existence of the more mundane Historical Jesus. Using the logical tools of the analytic philosopher, Lataster finds that the relevant sources are unreliable as historical documents, and that the key method of those purporting that the Historical Jesus existed is to appeal to sources that do not exist. Considering an ancient hypothesis suggesting that Jesus began as a celestial messiah that certain Second Temple Jews already believed in, and was later allegorised in the Gospels, Lataster discovers that it is more reasonable to at least be agnostic over Jesus’ historicity.
Table of Contents Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction 1Which Jesus? 2A Debate among Atheists 3The Problem 4The Philosopher’s Probabilistic Approach Part 1: The Case for Historicity 1Ehrman’s Dual Approach towards the Gospels 1A (Mostly) Wonderful Start 2The Gospels and the Folly of the Hypothetical Source 2Beyond the Gospels 1The Problem of Paul 3Casey’s Superfluous ‘Scholarship’ 1Poisoning the Well 2‘Method’ 3Why the Gospels Ought to Be Trusted, but Only When We Feel like It 4After the Case 5Even Worse than Ehrman: Offensive and Facetious 6Crossan’s Brief Attempt Part 2: The Case for Agnosticism 4Inadequate Methods 1History Concerns What Probably Happened 2Criteria for Authenticity 3Faith and Inconsistency 4A Bayesian Alternative 5The Criteria vs. Bayes 5Inadequate Sources 1The Silence of the Primary Sources 2‘Other’ Christian Sources 3(Non-Christian) Extrabiblical Sources 4Josephus 5Tacitus 6Thallus (and Phlegon) 7Pliny, Suetonius, and Mara Bar Serapion 8The Talmud 9The Less Interesting Books of the New Testament 10The Canonical Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke-Acts, and John 11Mark’s Burden 12The Genre of the Gospels 13Burridge’s Take on the Gospels’ Genre 14Mark’s Failure 6The Problem of Paul 1The Docetic/Marcionite Jesus 2The Earliest Witness’ Sources 3Paul’s Minimal, Unquotable Jesus 4Paul’s Cosmic Christ 5Philo’s Pre-Christian and Pre-Pauline ‘Celestial Jesus’ 6The Evolution of Jesus 7Fictitious Founders 8The Revelation of/from Paul 9Agnosticism is Rational Part 3: The Case for Mythicism 7Prior Probabilities 1The Problem 2The Hypothesis of Historicity 3The Hypothesis of Myth 4Background Knowledge (Christianity) 4.1Elements of Christian Origin 4.2Elements of Christian Religion 5Background Knowledge (Context) 5.1Elements of Political Context 5.2Elements of Religious and Philosophical Context 5.3Elements of Literary Context 6The Prior Probability 8Consequent Probabilities 1Primary Sources 2Extrabiblical Evidence 3The Evidence of Acts 4The Evidence of the Gospels 5The Evidence of the Epistles 9Calculations 1Carrier’s Calculations 2Alternative Calculations 3Devil’s Advocate Conclusions 1The Glory of Agnosticism 2Mainstream Scholars Already Agree with Us Bibliography Index
