the id, the ego, & the single misfiring brain cell

I've been waiting with thinly veiled patience for Richard Carrier's forthcoming book on the historicity of Jesus for some time now. I know him to be a very dedicated, thorough, and fair scholar, and when I first learned--maybe five years ago?--that he had changed his opinion on the question of Jesus' historicity and was writing a scholarly book on the subject, I've checked for it every few months ever since. 

I've long been fascinated with the question of Jesus' historicity. Call it a hobby. Many years ago, I tried reading Achayra S's Greatest Story Ever Sold but was so disgusted with her unsupported assertions and clear lack of scholarly approach that I didn't make it more than two chapters. I eventually gave it to a friend who wished to read it despite my advice that she'd probably be wasting her time.

About a year later, I got my hands on a couple of books by Timothy Freke: The Jesus Mysteries and Jesus and the Lost Goddess (Sophia, if you're wondering). I read the first and some of the second. While they were admittedly interesting, they were written for laymen and thus not scholarly. 

Then about seven years ago, I got my hands on Earl Doherty's The Jesus Puzzle, which was much better written than S's work, but suffered from Doherty's lack of expertise in the subject. For all his research and carefully constructed arguments, he still is just an amateur, and the fact is, amateurs tend to not be taken seriously by scholars. I did find Doherty's argument about the celestial Jesus being the origin of the tale to be most thought-provoking, however. Otherwise, much of his "proof" that Jesus never existed was fairly weak.  

This morning, I stumbled across a clip of Richard's fairly recent talk on the book he's working on concerning the historicity of Jesus. It is quite fascinating. If you're into this sort of thing, give it a gander. (It's about an hour long, but well worth your time.)

I have been a fan of Richard's since I first was reading his book reviews and essays on the Secular Web. He is, without fail, even-handed in his treatment of the subjects he specializes in (here is a link to his CV, should you be interested). 

If you have time, I recommend watching this lecture. He debunks many popular "other gods did the same things" misconceptions and explains why he changed his mind about Jesus' historicity. Good stuff. 

d