John Dominic Crossan

by kgfreeperson 18 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  kgfreeperson

  I've been listening to John Dominic Crossan on the radio and am fascinated. What are your opinions of him as a biblical scholar?
  
  Thanks.
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  Leolaia

  I like him. He's very articulate and his books are always very interesting and marshals documentary evidence rather well. His work on the literary sources of the Passion narrative is congently argued, and I enjoy his stratal approach to NT materials, but I think -- on the slender evidence available -- the assigning of writings to respective strata is more arbitrary than he acknowledges and if we reassign one or another writings from one strata to another, it would substantially alter the assumed pattern of theological development. I mostly agree with the dates he gives to early Christian writings, but still....I would say the reconstructions are more provisional and disputable than might be apparent in his books. I would say it's a good working hypothesis. Now if we can just find some new data....
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  Leolaia

  I should say too that not everyone responds well to a literary approach to the gospel traditions. I was thumbing through one of his books in Borders, and someone in the same aisle perusing through the Christian books near me muttered something to me like "Not that one, he's bad".
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  Euphemism

  LOL Leolaia! Nice to know that the good Christian was watching out for you.
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  rick_here

  I've read, and own, several of Crossan's books and "respect" him in terms of his "scope" (in his historical focus in NT Studies). His The Birth of Christianity has been an invaluable reference text in my studies.
  
  
  
  
  
  Liberal Christianity is somewhat dependent on these historical-reconstructions---and what they may "mean for us today." This is exactly where I depart from the Liberal (theological) Presuppositions. I have even more difficulties with Liberal Theology's "subjective meanings" (which can be assigned to any text). What "you" think the Bible means is what it means; I can't accept that concept. I know of no reasons (at all) to support the divorcing the meaning of the Bible from what it's (original) authors "intended to say" and therefore, meant when they wrote.
  
  
  
  easten by dogs). It's not that I find this to be impossible; it's (simply) Crossan's subjective conclusion (which is THE epistemological emphaisis (in Liberal Christianity); I patently reject that presupposition and, therefore, the resulting conclusions.
  
  
  
  
  
  I don't mean to say that Bible scholars like Crossan don't have any historical tid-bits or details to add to our investigation into the Bible; they do. "Postmodern (christian) Liberal Theology" is where I share next-to-nothing with Crossan.
  I do not believe Jesus is an especially-inspirational "religious myth"....(I actually think and feel he's alive)....right-NOW.
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  Deputy Dog

  Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up?: A Debate Between William Lane Craig and John Dominic Crossan

  

  I think he is way out of main stream, just looking for headlines
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  kgfreeperson

  I've been finding all the places he's been interviewed on public radio when his books have come out and have really enjoyed listening to him.
  
  I didn't get the impression that Crossan thought Jesus body had been buried in a shallow grave and eaten by dogs--he may have written that, but that's not what he said. Rather, that Romans used crucifiction to warn others not to do whatever the crucified had done and the purpose was anihilation. Therefore, families were not allowed to take down the bodies and properly bury them, but the bodies were left on the cross/stake where their bodies would be eaten by animals. However, certainly some familiers were able to retrieve and bury bodies--he cited the recent discovery of a buried body with a nail through its heal indicating crucifiction.
  
  I thought his point was that nobody really knew what happened to Jesus's body and that one could see the story of the death, burial and ressurrection becoming more and more what Christians hoped had happened.
  
  I'm resisting ordering his most recent book on Paul because I already have a pile of recently acquired but as yet unread books making me feel guilty. But I'm looking forward to reading him.
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  peacefulpete

  I also feel Crossan has and will continue to make a valuable contribution to the study of Xtian origins. I do however see a man (even a movement) in turmoil. Scholars (I feel the word applies) who presume an historical Jesus naturally must justify this supposition with a cache of sayings and episodes retained to be authentic. Whereas dispationate researchers have found these core sayings and episodes to be easily dismissable as literary creations using the very same standard critical criteria used by scholars such as Crossan. IOW his beliefs only allow him to go half way. Somewhere between a Crossan and a Doherty lies the truth.
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  Leolaia

  rick_here....I really don't think Crossan is a post-modernist. Liberal, yes, but his approach to texts in trying to divine the "historical Jesus" does not strike me as an especially "post-modernist" endeavor.

  PP....I think JD Crossan is the scholar I would most like to meet. :) Anyway, I agree somewhat, I think he is on the right track with a core of "Jesus sayings" but I think they are best located within a community rather than an individual (e.g. the elusive historical Jesus). As you know, I don't agree with Doherty in attributing to Paul the concept of Jesus, but I think we have an interaction between Paul and his followers and an already existing Nazorean/Ebionite community (with wisdom sayings and practices drawing from older roots). I have to go right now to have lunch, so I can't elaborate more...anyway....
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  peacefulpete

  I think Doherty feels thatr Paul has inherited the Christ decending/sascending motif, as he speaks of others that had preceeded him. I don't think he had anything to do with 'Jesus', tho he appears to be at least the foremost early advocate of tying this Christ with jewish speculation.