{"product_id":"questioning-the-historicity-of-jesus-why-a-philosophical-analysis-elucidates-the-historical-discourse-9789004397934","title":"Questioning the Historicity of Jesus: Why a Philosophical Analysis Elucidates the Historical Discourse","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis 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 Using the logical tools of the analytic philosopher, Lataster finds that the relevant sources are unreliable as historical documents, and that the key method of those purporting that the Historical Jesus existed is to appeal to sources that do not exist.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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 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","brand":"Brill","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53210773356887,"sku":"9789004397934","price":183.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/questioning-the-historicity-of-jesus-why-a-philosophical-analysis-elucidates-the-historical-discourse-9789004397934","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}