Was Jesus a Mythical Figure? Responding to the Charge that Jesus of Nazareth Never Existed

The purpose of this thesis is to examine and refute the arguments made by mythicists, who deny the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth. It begins by investigating the historical development of myth. Next, it explores the history of mythicism since its inception in the eighteenth century. The penultimate chapter outlines the main criticisms that mythicists level against the Gospels; the final chapter responds to these arguments. There are two major findings of this thesis. First, the mythicists’ standard for evidence is not applied consistently. Second, they fail to show why their interpretations of the available data are better than more traditional approaches. The conclusion is that they do not provide sufficient reasons for doubting the existence of Jesus as a human in history.Carrier, Price, Jesus, Mythicism

The Issue of Antitrinitarianism in the Fifteenth-Century Novgorod-Moscow Movement: Analysis and Evaluation

This study attempts to examine the trinitarian beliefs of the fifteenth-century Novgorod-Moscow movement, analyzing both their own writings and the polemical writings of those who considered their teaching antitrinitarian. The main objective of the present research is to contribute to the restoration of the authentic theological identity of this movement. Chapter 1 defines the problem, which has already been raised by some nineteenth-century scholars who have pointed out that the allegedly antitrinitarian character of the Subbotniks\u27 movement must be open for further discussion. It also shows that no systematic research on Subbotniks\u27 theology has ever been produced. The second chapter of this historical-theological study surveys the historical background of the Novgorod-Moscow movement and briefly analyzes the religious, political, and cultural context of fifteenth-century Russia. It demonstrates that the struggle surrounding this movement was motivated not only theologically, but also politically and culturally. Chapter 3 analyzes the polemical documents, giving priority to the primary sources contemporary to the Novgorod-Moscow movement, such as Archbishop Gennadii\u27s letters and Iosif of Volotsk\u27s Instructor. In general, the documents presented in this chapter differ in their charges of antitrinitarianism against the Subbotniks. Chapter 4 analyzes the Subbotniks\u27 sources, which include all the passages directly or indirectly dealing with their trinitarian views. The writings of the Subbotniks in general represent the trends common for European reform movements of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The study of the Subbotniks\u27 literature shows that the antitrinitarian character of this movement cannot be confirmed by the writings of the Subbotniks themselves. Chapter 5 presents a systematic-analytical and historical evaluation of the question of the trinitarian status of the Novgorod-Moscow movement. The present research found no traces of antitrinitarianism in the Subbotniks\u27 movement

Methods and models in the third quest of the historical Jesus

In this thesis I examine some of the major contributions to current historical Jesus research, now commonly known as the third quest of the historical Jesus. As most of the participants in the third quest define their work primarily as historiography, in Chapter 11 situate these reconstructions in the landscape of present-day historiography, with special attention to the reaction of the authors in question to the challenge of postmodernism. In view of the methodological diversity of the third quest as well as the lack of consensus about the criteria to be used in the reconstructions or in their evaluation, after a brief survey in Chapter 2 of the history of "criteriology" in life-of-Jesus research, I found It necessary to devise my own list of evaluative criteria in Chapter 3. The general criteria are to do with the overall shape and style of the reconstructions, while the criteria of historical reasoning evaluate them in terms of their presentation as historiography. Finally, a modified version of the "traditional" criteria of the historical-critical method is designed to evaluate the text-related arguments within the reconstructions. In chapter 4 I analyse some selected contributions from the standpoint of the most hotly debated issue within the third quest, eschatology

Voegelin\u27s History of Political Ideas and the problem of Christian order: a critical appraisal

This dissertation will analyze the problem of Christian political order in light of Eric Voegelin’s History of Political Ideas. The great weakness in Voegelin, according to many critics, was his failure to deal with the historical appearance of Jesus of Nazareth and to fully examine the implications of Christianity for human beings in their political and social existence. The completed publication of the History of Political Ideas now offers the opportunity for a more complete assessment of Voegelin’s position with regard to the problem of Christian political order. The History contains his most comprehensive treatment of Christianity, in terms of both the experience of faith and the institutionalization of religion in the church. It is in the inherent tension between the experience of faith and the institutionalization of the spirit in the church that the problem of Christian political order is revealed. The analysis contained herein will focus upon the tension between a spiritual phenomena based on faith in the Pauline sense and the institutionalization of that experience in the immanent representative of the church. Christian political order was premised upon a series of compromises with the realities of human existence, both spiritual and immanent, made by Paul at the inception of the Christian community. The dissertation will demonstrate that it was in the retreat and abandonment of those compromises that Christian political order as represented by the sacrum imperium, the political idea that was at the heart of Western civilization until the Great Reformation, came undone

An Examination of Joel Edmund Anderson’s Christianity and the (R)evolution in Worldviews

An Examination of Joel Edmund Anderson’s Christianity and the (R)evolution in Worldview

Interfaith Relations after One Hundred Years: Christian Mission among Other Faiths

These papers looks historically at factors in Europe that affected Christian interaction with Muslims, Hindus and other religions.https://scholar.csl.edu/edinburghcentenary/1009/thumbnail.jp

Shapes of Apocalypse

This collective volume aims to highlight the philosophical and literary idea of “apocalypse,” within some key examples in the “Slavic world” during the nineteenth and twentieth century. From Russian realism to avant-garde painting, from the classic fiction of the nineteenth century to twentieth century philosophy, not omitting theatre, cinema or music, there is a specific examination of the concepts of “end of history” and “end of present time” as conditions for a redemptive image of the world. To understand this idea means to understand an essential part of Slavic culture, which; however divergent and variegated it may be in general, converges on a specific myth in a surprising manner