For the show notes:
http://www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com/ - Robet M Price's blog
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We try to do interesting interviews for people with very short spans of attention. Our listeners are intelligent but mostly will not have any previous interest or inclination towards this topic. I really want them to understand why this topic is fascinating - my goal is to inspire them to check out your work. Some of my questions will be intentionally dumb - that’s only that your own brilliance will be more perfectly contrasted.
No need to mention web-pages and such, we will link to your page and somewhere to buy your books from our site.
[INTRO] - recorded seperately
RobertMprice.mindvendor.com
Robert M Price is a professor of Systematic Theology. You probably already know him as a presenter of Point of Inquiry and from his own Bible Geek Podcasts. If you like this show I can pretty much guarantee that you’d enjoy his work.
His new book - The Christ Myth Theory and it’s Problems is intended to give a more naturalistic and historically plausible framework in which to understand the origin of Christianity
I began by asking Dr. Price why non-religious people ought to be concedrned with the origins of a text whose fundamental messages we reject?
OUTRO
I think adopting Dr. Price’s approach makes us more honest and effective critics of religion and it’s harms. I’m reminded of all of the debates I’ve had with bible-believers. I’ve never managed to sway a single person - the kind of arguments that appeal to me tend to have little impact on people who have made huge emotional investments in dogma, but I suspect that arguments grounded in Biblical text might be more impactful.
SF for the PD
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As non-religious people, why should we concern ourselves with the origins of a text whose fundamental message we reject?
- Can you talk about the intriguing puzzle that is the Christian Bible
- That if we are ever to understand religion we need to understand it as a process and that mythology provides the best framework for this.
- Why are you personally motivated as a Bible scholar despite having lost your faith?
Just what IS the Christ-myth theory, besides the obvious assertion that Jesus Christ was a literary or mythical character rather than a living breathing human being?
- Looking for a 1 minute outline of what the theory is
- That the mythical status is not limited to Jesus, some if not all of the apostles may also be mytical characters
Before I became familiar with your work, I would have assumed that Jesus was most probably an actual historical person whose achievements had been greatly exaggerated by followers - for example - in one of your podcast lectures you gave an example of Halie Selassie whom the Rastafarians claimed was a miracle worker. Could Jesus have been such a person?
- Looking for 1 minute on why the myth theory provides a more plausible explanation.
- Any parallels to this more modern story, about the way that believers often exaggerate miracle stories?
- Can you talk about how Christ fits the hero-archetype, and lacks any of the secular back-story that you might expect from an important historical figure?
In your writing and lectures you’ve pointed to a great deal of mythology which predates the Christian new-testament. There are stories of magic men who perform miracles, heal the sick and even cheat their own deaths - but there’s no single character from literature or myth who does all of these things - does the lack of a perfect parallel narrative provide a problem for the Christ myth theory?
- This question is intended to preempt a common critique from apologists who like to point out that no single parallel perfectly mirrors the Christ-story.
- I’ve heard you show parallels in contemporary SF/Comics which work in a similar way.
Your new book is called The Christ Myth Theory and it’s Problems - other than the fact that the world is full of literalist, bible-believing fundamentalists - what are the main problems with the current Christ Myth Theory?
- I’m hoping that you can outline the thrust of current scholarship,
- What big mysteries are unsolved, are there any notable gaps in the current theory?
Any attempt to grapple with the Bible forces the reader to acknowledge that there’s more here than meets the eye, more than tradition would like to acknowledge. I’ve often felt that there’s probably no better antidote to fundamentalist Christianity than a serious reading of the Bible.
- Not really a question, I know - I’m just looking for a response.
- There’s something you often say in your podcasts / lectures about how adopting a higher-critical approach is not the end of a religious journey but the beginning of a journey of discovery yielding far greater riches. That seems like a suitably inspiring note to end on.
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