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Title: Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up?: A Debate Between William Lane Craig and John Dominic Crossan by Paul Copan, John Dominic Crossan, William F. Buckley, William Lane Craig ISBN: 0-8010-2175-8 Publisher: Baker Book House Pub. Date: January, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (22 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Debate on the Resurrection in Book Form
Comment: This is the famous debate in print form between Craig and Crossan. I've already reviewed the content of the original debate on the audiotapes sold by Amazon. The 5 stars are for the interesting interaction between conservative and liberal New Testament scholars. Included in the book are responses from two noted scholars from the Jesus Seminar (Marcus Borg and Robert Miller) and two noted evangelical scholars (Ben Witherington and Craig Blomberg). At the end of the debate are final thoughts from Crossan and Craig.
Borg's section champions a form of fideism in that he sees no problem between the belief in Jesus as Christ and the possible fact of an occupied tomb the first Easter Sunday. Borg argues that one can still go on believing in Jesus because of people's post-crucifixion experiences of him. I agree with Craig here that this position is totally irrational. To believe in Christ even if his body was still in the grave is the desperation that modern liberal theology wants the man in the pew to believe in. A more intellectually honest answer would be that a person should not believe in Jesus as Christ if Jesus was still in the tomb.
Robert Miller's section is mainly an airing of his pet peeves on why apologetics does not work for non-believers. He outlines an Islamic apologetic to bring forth these points. He then points out what he takes as contradictions within the Resurrection narratives. Craig totally devastates his case though in the final section. Craig even shows that Miller made a textbook case of an informal fallacy known as hasty generalization.
Ben Witherington and Craig Blomberg add more background and scholarly expertise and corrections to Craig's argument. But Craig clearly takes these issues up in his final section.
Crossan's final section deals with some biographical issues on the debate and issues a challenge to conservative scholars like Witherington and Blomberg to list things that they find historically doubtful about the gospels. Apparently, if Witherington and Blomberg do not produce such a list then they are not being intellectually honest scholars.
Finally, Craig's section perfectly summarizes the various sections and shows that none of the scholars who oppose his position has done anything to rebut his arguments.
Rating: 4
Summary: Pretty good -- sour grapes aside.
Comment: It is true that Crossan did not substantially engage many of Craig's arguments for the ressurection. Instead, he offered orthodox Christians (who presumably have been sheltered from such ideas) a paradigm shift: "It's metaphorical, the Gospel writers didn't really mean it that way." True, the debate and essays following do create more of an all-star, rather than world series, atmosphere. Yet the book does bring together some real stars, and they do put on a good display, in my opinion, baring on the most important spiritual questions we can ask.
Not all of the complaints below need to be taken seriously. "Buckley was biased. He called Crossan a puff of smoke." Who were you expecting, Barbara Walters? The man calls his show Firing Line: where there's fire, there's bound to be smoke. Crossan is a big scholar; he can take care of himself. "Craig got to go first, and last, too." Life is indeed unfair. Still, what you get here is three top scholars on both sides, each given time to develop their ideas. Not exactly a kangaroo court. "They spoke past each other. Crossan said the Gospels are metaphor, and Craig failed to reply." Not so. Crossan advanced his argument explicitly, and Craig even more explicitly refuted it. Not that it took much refuting. With the Gospels, it is obvious we're not dealing with Homer or Bunyan: precisely why they continue to cause such a fuss.
Miller wrote an interesting essay on how different an apologetic appears to those "inside" a group as opposed to those "outside." I did not find the particular example he gave, of Islamic apologetics, that strong, for the simple reason that from earliest times Islam has held that conversion "out" ws deserving of death. (The day before I first wrote this, I got an e-mail from a friend in Nigeria about a student of his whose uncle tried to knife him for converting to Christianity.) In a closed society, your apologetic doesn't have to carry all the weight of persuasion. (Can you imagine publicly debating the credibility of Muhammed in a Muslim country?) But even in the case of Humanism, it is striking to me that this debate, in which top scholars attacked a core belief of Christianity, was held in a church, and published by a Christian publisher. It is also striking that, as Blomberg points out, Crossan shows little or not familiarity with "evangelical" scholarship. (Unlike, to his credit, Lowder and his Internet Infidel friends.) Yet the secular media and academic worlds go to the likes of Crossan for expertise, or reassurance, as the case may be. In which direction, then, should the force of Miller's argument about tunnel vision and self-referential apologetics be turned?
In these discussions, comparative religion is usually brought in as an ally by the skeptical side, as here by Borg and Miller. But I think it actually offers powerful arguments for the truth of the Gospel. Those interested in the relationship between Christianity and other religions, and its implications for this discussion, might take a look at my recent book, Jesus and the Religions of Man.
Rating: 5
Summary: Puts the "Jesus Seminar" in proper perspective
Comment: This was a great book and I agree with the general observations of the vast majority of the reviewers. That is, Craig won hands down. Crossan didn't really even enter the debate which surprised and disappointed some reviewers. But it's really not surprising at all. Crossan's arguments (or lack there of) come directly from the work of the Jesus Seminar. And Crossan's utter defeat illustrates that the Seminar's work is of little value in disproving the Gospels and the mainstream Christian interpetation of them as largely accurate, HISTORICAL accounts of Jesus' life.
Rather, the Jesus Seminar must be looked upon as an experiment in liberal theological thought. It was a chance for liberal scholars to come together and develop a consensus unburdened by critical peer review from their more conservative, and for the most part more mainstream, more distinguished peers.
The result was a new pardigm for interperting the NT. Briefly, the consensus was that it is all symbolism and metaphor. This new paradigm is a logical outcome based on the assumptions, membership, and methods of the seminar. But when brought out into the light of day, it is very awkward and even ridiculous.
The seminar serves a worthwhile purpose as an experiment and "anchor" at the extreme liberal end of the spectrum. But not much else.
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Title: Jesus Under Fire by Michael J. Wilkins, James Porter Moreland ISBN: 0310211395 Publisher: Zondervan Pub. Date: 17 July, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.99 |
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Title: Jesus' Resurrection: Fact or Figment?: A Debate Between William Lane Craig and Gerd Ludemann by William Lane Craig, Ronald Tacelli, Paul Copan, Gerd Ludemann ISBN: 0830815694 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: December, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Historical Reliability of the Gospels by Craig L. Blomberg ISBN: 0877849927 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: July, 1987 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ by Gary R. Habermas ISBN: 0899007325 Publisher: College Press Publishing Company, Inc. Pub. Date: June, 1996 List Price(USD): $17.99 |
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Title: God?: A Debate Between a Christian and an Atheist (Point/Counterpoint Series (Oxford, England).) by William Lane Craig, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong ISBN: 0195165993 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: August, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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