Various thoughts on current events with an emphasis on politics, legal issues, books, movies and whatever is on my mind. Emails can be sent to almostsanejoe@aol.com; please put "blog comments" in the subject line.
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- This blog is the work of an educated civilian, not of an expert in the fields discussed.
Thursday, October 03, 2013
Reza Aslan's Jesus bio
In the introduction, he speaks of "works attributed to but not written by a specific author" and says "by no means" should this be seen as a fraud. Bart Ehrman (who along with Elaine Pagels and Karen Armstrong is not listed in the bibliography) differs. Book looks interesting, but it seems "grain of salt" will be appropriate. Some time back, read a bio of Jesus (and Paul) by the historian Michael Grant. So, he is on paved ground here.
3 comments:
I'll be interested in your reactions when you finish his book. I heard him speak recently on the content of the book and found him persuasive on his main thesis. To his credit, he readily concedes that much of it is speculative but also notes that the job of the historian is to examine what is probable as opposed to what is provable in some clear truth sense.
I will try to provide my overall thoughts -- looks to be a reasonable thesis, though I'll probably find certain statements (like the fraud business) problematic. I like his use of detailed notes though many will skip over them but the tone at times seems a bit too sure -- we simply don't know really about some of this stuff.
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Thanks for your .02!