The question is simple… What two living scholars would you like to see on a Historical Jesus studies team?
You also have to give a rationale.
I would like to name Mark and John, but it is clear that the heretics wouldn’t like just sticking with da bible. So, fine:
I would like to name Donald Akenson, Saint Saul: A Skeleton Key to the Historical Jesus as my first choice. The reason is, is that he goes after the most direct route: the letters of Paul. He is a historian first and foremost. In my opinion, Paul counts about as much as a first generation witness as anyone else we have. Although, not an eyewitness.
The second name, like unto the first, is Shadi Bartsch, a Classics professor at the University of Chicago. Her work on the time period, especially ideology in writing, and the like, I think would help with determining certain rabbit hunts in the Gospel as historical or literary.
Unlike Akenson, I believe Mark does provide us something of a bare-naked glimpse into the Historical Jesus. I would contend that the exorcism im Mark 9 is historical, making Jesus a ritual exorcist rather than what we would like to think we see.
Anyway, those are my two choices. Head over to that link and leave your choices.
Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).
Website: → Unsettled Christianity
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Thanks Joel,
anthony