Robert M. Price
Robert M. Price | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Robert McNair Price (1954-07-07) July 7, 1954 Jackson, Mississippi, U.S.[1] |
| Residence | North Carolina |
| Alma mater | Montclair State University (BA, 1976) Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary (MTS, 1978) Drew University (PhD in Systematic Theology (1981)); PhD in New Testament (1993)[1] |
| Occupation | Theologian |
| Employer | Professor of biblical criticism for the Council for Secular Humanism's Center for Inquiry Institute[2] |
| Known for | Views on the historicity of Jesus |
| Political party | Republican [3][4] |
| Spouse(s) | Carol Selby Price[5] |
| Children | Victoria and Veronica[1] |
| Website | robertmprice.mindvendor.com |
Robert McNair Price (born July 7, 1954) is an American theologian and writer, known for arguing against the existence of a historical Jesus (the Christ myth theory). He taught philosophy and religion at the Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary.[6] He is a professor of biblical criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute, and the author of a number of books on theology and the historicity of Jesus.
A former Baptist minister, he was the editor of the Journal of Higher Criticism from 1994 until it ceased publication in 2003. He has also written extensively about the Cthulhu Mythos, a "shared universe" created by the writer H. P. Lovecraft.[7] He also co-wrote a book with his wife, Carol Selby Price, Mystic Rhythms: The Philosophical Vision of Rush (1999), on the rock band Rush.
Price is a fellow of the suspended Jesus Project, a group of 150 writers and scholars who study the historicity of Jesus, the organizer of a Web community for those interested in the history of Christianity,[8] and sits on the advisory board of the Secular Student Alliance.[5] He is a religious skeptic, especially of orthodox Christian beliefs, occasionally describing himself as a Christian atheist.[9]
Contents
1 Background
2 Christ myth theory
2.1 Methodology
2.2 Key arguments for the Christ myth theory
2.3 Jesus-agnosticism
2.4 Mythological origins
2.5 Gospels as Midrash
2.6 Influences of Greek Cynicism
2.7 Historicising the myth
3 H. P. Lovecraft scholarship
4 Other works
5 Debates
6 Publications
7 Magazines
8 Notes
9 References
10 Sources
11 External links
Background
Price was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1954 and moved to New Jersey in 1964. He received a Master of Theological Studies in New Testament from Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary in 1978. At Drew University he was awarded one Ph.D. in Systematic Theology in 1981 and another in New Testament in 1991. He was pastor of the First Baptist Church in Montclair, New Jersey.[1] He has served as Professor of Religion at Mount Olive College, Professor of Theology and Scriptural Studies at Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary and Professor of Biblical Criticism for the Center for Inquiry Institute in Amherst, New York.[10]
Christ myth theory
Price challenges biblical literalism and argues for a more sceptical and humanistic approach to Christianity. Price questioned the historicity of Jesus in a series of books, including Deconstructing Jesus (2000), The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man (2003), Jesus Is Dead (2007), and The Christ-Myth Theory and Its Problems (2012), as well as in Jesus at the Vanishing Point, a contribution to The Historical Jesus: Five Views (2009).
Methodology
Price uses critical-historical methods,[11] but also uses "history-of-religions parallel[s],"[12] or the "Principle of Aanalogy,"[13] to show similarities between Gospel narratives and non-Christian Middle Eastern myths.[14] Price criticises some of the criteria of critical Bible research, such as the criterion of dissimilarity[15] and the criterion of embarrasment.[16] Price further notes that "consensus is no criterion" for the historicity of Jesus.[17] According to Price, if critical methodology is applied with ruthless consistency, one is left in complete agnosticism regarding Jesus's historicity.[18][note 1] In Jesus at the Vanishing Point Price acknowledges that he stands against the majority view of scholars, but cautions against attempting to settle the issue by appeal to the majority.[19]
Key arguments for the Christ myth theory
In Jesus at the Vanishing Point (2010), Price gives three key points for the traditional Christ myth theory, which originated with Bruno Bauer and the Dutch Radical School:[20]
- There is no mention of a miracle-working Jesus in secular sources; Price asserts that Eusebius fabricated the Testimonium Flavianum.[21]
- The epistles, written earlier than the gospels, provide no evidence of a recent historical Jesus; all that can be taken from the epistles, Price argues, is that a Jesus Christ, son of God, lived in a heavenly realm, there died as a sacrifice for human sin, was raised by God, and enthroned in heaven.[22]
- The Jesus narrative is paralleled in Middle Eastern myths about dying and rising gods; Price names Baal, Osiris, Attis, Adonis, and Dumuzi/Tammuz as examples, all of which, he writes, survived into the Hellenistic and Roman periods and thereby influenced Early Christianity. Price alleges that Christian apologists have tried to downplay these parallels.[23]
In The Christ-Myth Theory and Its Problems (2011), Price maintains that the Christ myth theory is the most likely explanation for the origin of Christianity, giving another overview of arguments:[24]
- "almost every story in the Gospels (and Acts) can be plausibly argued to be borrowed from the Greek Old Testament, Homer, or Euripides."
- "every detail of the narrated life of Jesus fits the outlines of the Mythic Hero archetype present in all cultures"
- "the epistles, regardless of their dates as earlier or later than the gospels, seem to enshrine a different vein of early Christian faith which lacked an earthly Jesus, a Christianity that understood "Jesus" as an honorific throne-name bestowed on a spiritual savior who had been ambushed and killed by the Archons who rule the universe before he rose triumphant over them [...] Christianity eventually rewrote Jesus into an historical incarnation who suffered at the hands of earthly institutions of religion and government."
Jesus-agnosticism
Price argues that if critical methodology is applied with ruthless consistency, one is left in complete agnosticism regarding Jesus's historicity.[25][26] Price is quoted saying, "There might have been a historical Jesus, but unless someone discovers his diary or his skeleton, we'll never know."[27][28] He also similarly declared in a 1997 public debate:
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If there was a historical Jesus lying back of the gospel Christ, he can never be recovered. If there ever was a historical Jesus, there isn't one any more.[29]
Price notes that historians of classical antiquity approached mythical figures such as Heracles by rejecting supernatural tales while doggedly assuming that "a genuine historical figure" could be identified at the root of the legend. He describes this general approach as Euhemerism, and argues that most historical Jesus research today is also Euhemerist.[30] Price argues that Jesus is like other ancient mythic figures, in that no mundane, secular information seems to have survived. Accordingly, Jesus also should be regarded as a mythic figure. But, Price admits to some uncertainty in this regard. He writes at the conclusion of his 2000 book Deconstructing Jesus: "There may have been a real figure there, but there is simply no longer any way of being sure."[30][note 2]
Mythological origins
Price believes that Christianity is a historicized synthesis of mainly Egyptian, Jewish, and Greek mythologies,[33][34] viewing Jesus of Nazareth as an invented figure conforming to the Rank-Raglan mythotype.[30]
Price argues that the early Christians adopted the model for the figure of Jesus from the popular Mediterranean dying-rising saviour myths of the time, such as that of Dionysus. He argues that the comparisons were known at the time, as early church father Justin Martyr had admitted the similarities. Price suggests that Christianity simply adopted themes from the dying-rising god stories of the day and supplemented them with themes (escaping crosses, empty tombs, children being persecuted by tyrants, etc.) from the popular stories of the day in order to come up with the narratives about Christ.[35]
Gospels as Midrash
Price asserts that there was an almost complete fleshing out of the details of the gospels by a Midrash (haggadah) rewriting of the Septuagint, Homer, Euripides' Bacchae, and Josephus.[36] According to Price, "virtually every story in the gospels and Acts can be shown to be very likely a Christian rewrite of material from the Septuagint, Homer, Euripides' Bacchae, and Josephus [...] virtually every case of New Testament narrative" can be traced back to a literary prototype, leaving "virtually nothing left."[37]}}
Influences of Greek Cynicism
Price does not see in the Q document a reliable source for the historical Jesus, simply because Q shows everywhere a Cynic flavor, representing a school of thought rather than necessarily the teaching of a single person.[38] Price acknowledges that outside the New Testament there are a small number of ancient sources (Tacitus, for example) who would testify that Jesus Christ was a person who really lived. However, Price points out that, even assuming the authenticity of these references, they relate more to the claims of the Christians who lived at that time on Jesus, and do not prove that Jesus was a contemporary of the writers of antiquity.
Historicising the myth
Citing accounts that have Jesus being crucified under Alexander Jannaeus (83 BCE) or in his 50s by Herod Agrippa I under the rule of Claudius Caesar (41–54 CE), Price argues that these "varying dates are the residue of various attempts to anchor an originally mythic or legendary Jesus in more or less recent history."[39][40][41]
H. P. Lovecraft scholarship
As editor of the journal Crypt of Cthulhu[42] (published by Necronomicon Press) and of a series of Cthulhu Mythos anthologies,[43][44][45] Price has been a major figure in H. P. Lovecraft scholarship and fandom for many years.[46] In essays that introduce the anthologies and the individual stories, Price traces the origins of Lovecraft's entities, motifs, and literary style. The Cthulhu Cycle, for example, saw the origins of Cthulhu the octopoid entity in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "The Kraken" (1830) and particular passages from Lord Dunsany, while The Dunwich Cycle points to the influence of Arthur Machen on Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror."
Price's religious background often informs his Mythos criticism, seeing gnostic themes in Lovecraft's fictional god Azathoth[47] and interpreting "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" as a kind of initiation ritual.[48]
Most of the early Cthulhu books by Chaosium were overseen by Price; his first book was The Hastur Cycle (1993), an anthology of short stories which traced the development of a single Lovecraftian element, and this was followed by Mysteries of the Worm (1993), a collection of Robert Bloch's Mythos fiction.[49]
Other works
Price runs The Bible Geek, a broadcast show where Price answers listeners' questions.[50] In 2010 he became one of three new hosts on Point of Inquiry (the Center for Inquiry's podcast), following the retirement of host D. J. Grothe from the show. Having appeared on the show twice before as a guest (see external links below), he hosted until 2012.[51]
In 2005, he appeared in Brian Flemming's documentary film The God Who Wasn't There, is the subject of the documentary "The Gospel According to Price" by writer/director Joseph Nanni, and appears in the films of Jozef K. Richards in the documentary, Batman & Jesus, and comedy series, Holy Shit.[52][53]
Debates
In 1999, he debated William Lane Craig, arguing against the historicity of Jesus' resurrection.[54] In 2010, he debated James White, arguing against the reliability of the Bible. In 2010, he debated Douglas Jacoby, on Jesus: Man, Myth, or Messiah? In 2016, he debated New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman on the historicity of Jesus.[55]
Publications
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- On religion
The Widow Traditions in Luke-Acts: A Feminist-Critical Scrutiny Society of Biblical Literature. .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
ISBN 0-7885-0224-7 (Mar 1997).
The Evolution of the Pauline Canon, in Hervormde Teologiese Studies, Number 1&2 June 1997, 36-67
Mystic Rhythms: The Philosophical Vision of Rush Borgo Press.
ISBN 1-58715-102-2. with Carol Selby Price (1 Nov 1998)
Deconstructing Jesus Prometheus Books.
ISBN 1-57392-758-9. (20 Mar 2000).
The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man: How Reliable is the Gospel Tradition? Prometheus Books.
ISBN 1-59102-121-9. (20 Dec 2003)
The Empty Tomb: Jesus Beyond The Grave Prometheus Books.
ISBN 1-59102-286-X edited with Jeffery Jay Lowder (20 April 2005) with the following articles: "Introduction: The Second Life of Jesus," "Apocryphal Apparitions: 1 Corinthians 15:3-11 as a Post Pauline Interpretation" and "By This Time He Stinketh: The Attempts of William Lane Craig to Exhume Jesus."
The Da Vinci Fraud: Why the Truth Is Stranger than Fiction Prometheus Books.
ISBN 1-59102-348-3. (20 Sep 2005).
The Reason Driven Life: What Am I Here on Earth For? Prometheus Books.
ISBN 1-59102-476-5. (1 Sep 2006).
The Pre-Nicene New Testament: Fifty-four Formative Texts Signature Books
ISBN 1-56085-194-5. (30 Oct 2006)
The Paperback Apocalypse: How the Christian Church was Left Behind Prometheus Books.
ISBN 1-59102-583-4. (1 Sept 2007).
Jesus is Dead American Atheist Press
ISBN 1-57884-000-7. (30 April 2007).
Top Secret: The Truth Behind Today's Pop Mysticisms Prometheus Books.
ISBN 1-59102-608-3 (8 April 2008)
Beyond Born Again: Towards Evangelical Maturity Wildside Press.
ISBN 1-4344-7748-7 (30 Oct 2008).
Inerrant the Wind: The Evangelical Crisis of Biblical Authority Prometheus Books.
ISBN 1-59102-676-8 (1 Dec 2008).
The Case Against The Case For Christ: A New Testament Scholar Refutes the Reverend Lee Strobel, American Atheist Press.
ISBN 1-57884-005-8 (15 Feb 2010)- Chapter "Jesus: Myth and Method" in The Christian delusion edited by John W. Loftus Amherst, NY Prometheus Books 2010
ISBN 1-61614-168-9
Jesus Christ Superstar: The Making of a Modern Gospel. eBookIt (1 April 2011)
Paul: The Lost Epistles eBookIt.com (21 July 2011)
The Christ-Myth Theory and Its Problems American Atheist Press.
ISBN 1-57884-017-1 (1 August 2011)
The Amazing Colossal Apostle: The Search for the Historical Paul Signature Books
ISBN 1-56085-216-X (15 February 2012)
Bart Ehrman and the Quest of Historical Jesus of Nazareth: An Evaluation of Ehrman's Did Jesus Exist?
ISBN 978-1-57884-019-9 edited with Frank R. Zindler the following articles, "Introduction: Surprised by Myth" and "Bart Ehrman: Paradigm Policeman." American Atheist Press 2013 (16 Apr 2013)
Killing History: Jesus In The No-Spin Zone, Prometheus Books
ISBN 978-1-61614-967-3 (2 September 2014)- Foreword to Beyond the Crusades, American Atheist Press (2016) by Michael B. Paulkovich
ISBN 1-57884-033-3
- On the Cthulhu Mythos (as editor or author)
- Acolytes of Cthulhu
- The Antarktos Cycle: Horror and Wonder at the Ends of the Earth
- The Azathoth Cycle: The Blind Idiot God
- Black Forbidden Things
Blasphemies & Revelations Mythos Books.
ISBN 0-9789911-9-2. (30 Sep 2008).- The Book of Eibon
The Book of Iod (stories by Henry Kuttner)- The Cthulhu Cycle: Thirteen Tentacles of Terror
Dark Wisdom: New Tales of the Old Ones (stories by Gary Myers)- The Dunwich Cycle: Where the Old Gods Wait
- The Hastur Cycle
- The Horror of It All: Encrusted Gems from the "Crypt of Cthulhu"
- H.P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos
- The Innsmouth Cycle: The Taint of the Deep Ones
- The Ithaqua Cycle: The Wind-Walker of the Icy Wastes
- Lin Carter: A Look Behind His Imaginary Worlds
- Lin Carter's Anton Zarnak, Supernatural Sleuth
Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos (with Lin Carter) Borgo Pr; Rev Sub edition (Nov 1997)
ISBN 978-0-89370-013-3
The Mighty Warriors (May 2018)
Mysteries of the Worm (stories by Robert Bloch)- Nameless Cults: The Cthulhu Mythos Fiction of Robert E. Howard
- The Necronomicon
- The New Lovecraft Circle
- The Nyarlathotep Cycle: The God of a Thousand Forms
Shards of Darkness (stories by Edward P. Berglund)- The Shub-Niggurath Cycle: Tales of the Black Goat with a Thousand Young
- The Sword of Thongor
The Taint of Lovecraft (stories by Stanley Sargeant)- Tales of the Lovecraft Mythos
- Tales Out of Dunwich
- Tales Out of Innsmouth: New Stories of the Children of Dagon
- The Tsathoggua Cycle: Terror Tales of the Toad God
- Worlds of Cthulhu
- The Xothic Legend Cycle: The Complete Mythos Fiction of Lin Carter
- The Yith Cycle:Lovecraftian Tales of the Great Race and Time Travel
Note: many of Price's Cthulhu Mythos anthologies have appeared in French and Spanish editions (some unauthorised).
Magazines
Editor of Midnight Shambler and Crypt of Cthulhu.
Notes
^ Price: "One wonders if all these scholars came to a certain point and stopped, their assumption being "If Jesus was a historical figure, he must have done and said something!" But their own criteria and critical tools, which we have sought to apply here with ruthless consistency, ought to have left them with complete agnosticism.[18]
^ In Deconstructing Jesus Price points out, "(w)hat one Jesus reconstruction leaves aside, the next one takes up and makes its cornerstone. Jesus simply wears too many hats in the Gospels—exorcist, healer, king, prophet, sage, rabbi, demigod, and so on. The Jesus Christ of the New Testament is a composite figure ... The historical Jesus (if there was one) might well have been a messianic king, or a progressive Pharisee, or a Galilean shaman, or a magus, or a Hellenistic sage. But he cannot very well have been all of them at the same time."[31]
Price also states "I am not trying to say that there was a single origin of the Christian savior Jesus Christ, and that origin is pure myth; rather, I am saying that there may indeed have been such a myth, and that if so, it eventually flowed together with other Jesus images, some one of which may have been based on a historical Jesus the Nazorean."[32] In a discussion on euhemerism, Price cautiously asserts that "a genuine historical figure" may ultimately lie at the root of the Christian religion.[30] That figure (about whom he detects no surviving mundane, secular information) would have eventually been made into God through apotheosis. But Price admits uncertainty in this regard. He writes in conclusion, "There may have been a real figure there, but there is simply no longer any way of being sure."[30]
References
^ abcd Robert M. Price Archived 2010-06-08 at the Wayback Machine, The Jesus Project, Center for Inquiry.
^ Robert M. Price, Westar Institute; Advisory Board Secular Student Alliance, accessed April 15, 2010.
^ "About". Republican Atheists. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
^ "High-Profile Atheist Explains Why He's on the Trump Train: An Interview with Robert M. Price". Patheos. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
^ ab Advisory Board Secular Student Alliance, accessed April 15, 2010.
^ jctseminary.org online courses
^ Journal of Higher Criticism, accessed April 9, 2010; Joshi, S. T. and Schultz, David E. An H.P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia. Hippocampus Press, p. 217.
ISBN 0-9748789-1-X
^ Tokasz, Jay. Scholars to explore existence of Jesus, The Buffalo News, November 30, 2008, accessed February 22, 2009.
^ gerede dasein (2016-04-20), Being a Christian Atheist (Dr. Robert M. Price), retrieved 2017-10-21
^ "About the Show". The Human Bible. Center for Inquiry Institute. n.d. Retrieved March 1, 2017..
^ Price 2003, p. 9-24.
^ Price 2003, p. 125.
^ Price 2011, p. 25.
^ Price 2003, p. 121, 125-128, 331.
^ Price 2003, p. 16-19.
^ Price 2003, p. 121.
^ Price, 2009 & 61.
^ ab Price 2003, p. 351.
^ Price, Robert M. "Jesus at the Vanishing Point" in James K. Beilby & Paul Rhodes Eddy (eds.) The Historical Jesus: Five Views. InterVarsity, 2009, p. 61ff.
^ Price, Robert M. (2003). The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man: How Reliable Is the Gospel Tradition?. Prometheus Books, Publishers. p. 350. ISBN 978-1-61592-028-0.Most of the Dutch Radical scholars, following Bruno Bauer, argued that all of the gospel tradition was fabricated to historicize an originally bare datum of a savior, perhaps derived from the Mystery Religions or Gnosticism or even further afield. The basic argument offered for this position, it seems to me, is that of analogy, the resemblances between Jesus and Gnostic and Mystery Religion saviors being just too numerous and close to dismiss.
^ Price, Robert M. (4 February 2010). "Jesus at the Vanishing Point". In James K. Beilby, Paul Rhodes Eddy. The Historical Jesus: Five Views. InterVarsity Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-8308-7853-6.[The Traditional Christ-Myth Theory - The first of the three pillars] Why no mention of a miracle-working Jesus in secular sources? ... For the record, my guess is that Eusebius fabricated it [the Testimonium Flavianum] and that the tenth-century Arabic version represents an abridgement of the Eusebian original, not a more primitive, modest version.
^ Price, Robert M. (4 February 2010). "Jesus at the Vanishing Point". In James K. Beilby, Paul Rhodes Eddy. The Historical Jesus: Five Views. InterVarsity Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-8308-7853-6.The second of the three pillars of the traditional Christ-Myth case is that the Epistles, earlier than the Gospels, do not evidence a recent historical Jesus. Setting aside the very late 1 Timothy, which presupposes the Gospel of John (the only Gospel in which Jesus "made a good confession before Pontius Pilate"), we should never guess from the Epistles that Jesus died in any particular historical or political context, only that the fallen angels (Col 2:15), the archons of this age, did him in, little realizing they were sealing their own doom (1 Cor 2:6-8).
^ Price, Robert M. (4 February 2010). "Jesus at the Vanishing Point". In James K. Beilby, Paul Rhodes Eddy. The Historical Jesus: Five Views. InterVarsity Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-8308-7853-6.[Dying-and-Rising Gods] The Jesus story as attested in the Epistles shows strong parallels to Middle Eastern religions based on the myths of dying-and-rising gods. (And this similarity is the third pillar of the traditional Christ-Myth theory.)
^ Price, Robert M. (2011). "Conclusion: Do You "No" Jesus?". The Christ-Myth Theory and Its Problems. American Atheist Press. p. 425. ISBN 978-1-57884-017-5.
^ Price, Robert M. (2003). The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man: How Reliable Is the Gospel Tradition?. Prometheus Books, Publishers. p. 351. ISBN 978-1-61592-028-0.One wonders if all these scholars came to a certain point and stopped, their assumption being. "If Jesus was a historical figure, he must have done and said something!" But their own criteria and critical tools. which we have sought to apply here with ruthless consistency, ought to have left them with complete agnosticism.
^ Price, Robert M. (December 31, 1999). "Of Myth and Men: A Closer Look at the Originators of the Major Religions - What Did They Really Say and Do?". Free Inquiry magazine. 20 (1).Is it ... possible that beneath and behind the stained-glass curtain of Christian legend stands the dim figure of a historical founder of Christianity? Yes, it is possible, perhaps just a tad more likely than that there was a historical Moses, about as likely as there having been a historical Apollonius of Tyana. But it becomes almost arbitrary to think so.
^ Jacoby, Douglas (2010). Compelling Evidence for God and the Bible: Finding Truth in an Age of Doubt. Harvest House Publishers. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-7369-3759-7.
^ "Jacoby-Price Debate". Douglas Jacoby Website. 31 July 2013. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
^ Price, Robert M. (1997). "The Price-Rankin Debate: Jesus: Fact or Fiction?". infidels.org. Retrieved 27 November 2016.My point here is simply that, even if there was a historical Jesus lying back of the gospel Christ, he can never be recovered. If there ever was a historical Jesus, there isn't one any more. (Opening Statement by Robert Price)
^ abcde Price, Robert. Deconstructing Jesus. Prometheus Books. p. 250. ISBN 1-57392-758-9.
^ Price, Robert M. (2000). Deconstructing Jesus, pp. 15–16.
^ Price, Robert M. (2000). Deconstructing Jesus, p. 86.
^ Price, Robert M. "Jesus at the Vanishing Point" in James K. Beilby & Paul Rhodes Eddy (eds.) The Historical Jesus: Five Views. InterVarsity, 2009, p. 55ff
^ Price, Robert M. Book review of "Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection". 2009. Retrieved 2010-08-04.
^ Price, Robert M. (2000). "The Christ Cults". Deconstructing Jesus. Prometheus. pp. 86, 88, 91, 93. ISBN 978-1-61592-120-1.
Mack, Burton L. (1993). "Mythmaking and the Christ". The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q and Christian Origins. HarperSanFrancisco. pp. 219f. ISBN 978-0-06-065374-3.The evidence from Paul's letters is that the congregations of the Christ were attractive associations and that their emerging mythology was found to be exciting. A spirited cult formed on the model of the mystery religions ...
Eddy, Paul Rhodes; Boyd, Gregory A. (1 August 2007). The Jesus Legend: A Case for the Historical Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus Tradition. Baker Academic. p. 137, n. 15. ISBN 978-0-8010-3114-4.[Quoting Robert Price on Burton Mack] "A Christ religion modeled after a Mystery cult is a Mystery cult, a Christ cult worthy of the name" (Price, Deconstructing Jesus, 93). In context, Price is chiding Mack for using the name "Christ cult" while stopping short of explicitly linking it to the mystery cults ...
^ Price, Robert M. (2005). "New Testament narrative as Old Testament midrash". In Jacob Neusner and Alan J. Avery-Peck. Encyclopaedia of Midrash: Biblical Interpretation in Formative Judaism. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 90-04-14166-9.
^ Price, Robert M. "The Quest of the Mythical Jesus". Jesus Project - Center for Inquiry. Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion. Archived from the original on 17 April 2017. Retrieved 28 March 2017.The Quest of the Mythical Jesus first appeared on the Robert M. Price Myspace page.
^ Price, Robert M. (2005). "Review of Can We Trust the New Testament?". infidels.org. Retrieved 24 November 2017.[Per] the suggestion of Doherty and me that the sayings of Q, typical Cynical material demanding no single author, were only subsequently ascribed to Jesus, having perhaps originally been attributed to Dame Sophia.
^ Price, Robert M. (4 February 2010). "Jesus at the Vanishing Point". In James K. Beilby. The Historical Jesus: Five Views. Paul Rhodes Eddy. InterVarsity Press. p. 80f. ISBN 978-0-8308-7853-6.
^ Price, Robert M. (2006). The Pre-Nicene New Testament: Fifty-four Formative Texts. Signature Books. p. 240. ISBN 978-1-56085-194-3.[Per the Toledot Yeshu] One of the chief points of interest in this work is its chronology, placing Jesus about 100 BCE. ... Epiphanius and the Talmud also attest to Jewish and Jewish-Christian belief in Jesus having lived a century or so before we usually imagine, implying that perhaps the Jesus figure was at first an ahistorical myth and various attempts were made to place him in a plausible historical context, just as Herodotus and others tried to figure out when Hercules "must have" lived.
^ Irenaeus (c. 180 CE). Demonstration (74) Archived 2011-05-04 at the Wayback Machine.
^ Harms, Daniel. The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia. Elder Signs Press. p. XV. ISBN 1-934501-05-0.
^ Shannon Appelcline, A Brief History of Game #3: Chaosium: 1975-present on RPG.net
^ Joshi, S.T. Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: An Encyclopedia of Our Worst Nightmares. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 126. ISBN 0-313-33780-2.The Cthulhu Mythos remains a popular venue in literature and the media. Since the 1980s Robert M. Price has been a kind of August Derleth redivivus in publishing a dozen or more anthologies of Cthulhu Mythos tales by writers old and new
^ Mitchell, Charles P. The Complete H.P. Lovecraft Filmography. Greenwood Press. p. 6. ISBN 0-313-31641-4.
^ Hite, Kenneth (2008). Tour De Lovecraft: The Tales. Atomic Overmind Press. p. xiii.Joshi's only rival for eminence in the field during the 1980s and 1990s was Robert M. Price
^ Price, Robert M. "Introduction". The Azathoth Cycle. Chaosium. ISBN 1-56882-040-2.
^ Hite, Kenneth (2008). Tour De Lovecraft: The Tales. Atomic Overmind Press. p. 84.Equally importantly and convincingly, Price analyses the tale as a vision-quest, a coming-of-age ordeal ritual, which I have to say is pretty dead-on.
^ Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. p. 91. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
^ The Bible Geek
^ "Center for Inquiry Announces Three New Hosts for its Popular Podcast, 'Point of Inquiry'". Center for Inquiry. Retrieved 2010-02-14.
^ "Robert Price". King's Tower Productions. Retrieved 2017-02-05.
^ "Robert M. Price". IMDb. Retrieved 2017-02-05.
^ Video on YouTube
^ Mythicist Milwaukee (2016-10-25), Robert Price / Bart Ehrman Debate: Did Jesus Exist?, retrieved 2016-10-30
Sources
Price, Robert M. (2003). The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man: How Reliable Is the Gospel Tradition?. Prometheus Books. ISBN 9781591021216.
Price, Robert M. (2011). The Christ-Myth Theory and Its Problems. American Atheist Press. ISBN 978-1-5788-4017-5.
External links
 | Wikiquote has quotations related to: Robert M. Price |
- Official website
Works by or about Robert M. Price in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
Robert M. Price at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- The Human Bible podcast
Atheist Trump Supporter: Dr. Robert Price on Dogma Debate podcast, 2016-07-25
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