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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:

JackD said...

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.

Joe said...
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Joe said...

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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