Comments on: Jesus: history, fact and myth

By: James McGrath

James McGrath — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:07:38 +0000

Woo hoo! In response to the comment you left on my blog, I should say two things. First, I’m starting research on the Mandaeans. Now those are Baptists. Second, I’d gladly overlook a few quibbles about theology or practice for a chance to sit in a cathedral and hear a choir singing music of Parry or Stanford…

By: doug

doug — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:46:23 +0000

James, I have now corrected that oversight on my blogroll. You can take a look and see your blog in lights.

By: James McGrath

James McGrath — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 12:52:43 +0000

I certainly agree that the historical data acts as a constraint, but it also seems to be the case that, if one feels like a significant part of the evidence is leading to a particular depiction of Jesus, then troublesome sayings or actions that seem to run counter to it can be ignored, explained away, dismissed or reinterpreted. So there are constraints, but also ways around them, and as long as one doesn’t go too far (although one can go as far as one wants, depending on who the book will be published by).

I was tempted to make an analogy to writing fan fiction in the Star Wars universe…

Did you realize my blog isn’t in your blogroll…?!

By: doug

doug — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:43:07 +0000

I’m not sure I would use the phrase “creative writing”, for two reasons:
a) It ignores the way in which historical data acts as a constraint and shaping force on the creative reconstruction.
b) The way you’ve phrased it seems to be as a specific issue for historical Jesus research, whereas I was trying to make the point about all historical narrative.
So, I don’t know, are we saying the same thing?

By: James McGrath

James McGrath — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 13:42:15 +0000

I think you’re right, although maybe we might still salvage some value in what Strauss said. The information we can determine to be historically probable is a subset of the things Jesus actually said and did (and probably includes some ‘false positives’). The attempt to synthesize those puzzle pieces into a narrative about Jesus, on the other hand, involves a significant amount of the skills traditionally placed under the heading ‘creative writing’.

Is that simply saying what you said in different words, or am I saying something different?

By: JohnFH

JohnFH — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 04:50:57 +0000

Very well-worded, Doug. You might consider repackaging the post for the Biblicalist and see what response it generates there.

By: Koester on Historical Trajectory « Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth

Koester on Historical Trajectory « Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:37:18 +0000

[...] Matthew Montonini, Michael Bird, and Ben Witherington, which were all collated and added to by Doug Chaplin. Koester [...]