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Jesus: Legend, Teacher, Critic, or Son of God?
Gregory Boyd ~ Robert Price
Dr. Robert
Price of the Jesus Seminar and Dr. Gregory Boyd engage an academic dialogue
on the subject of the historical Jesus. Price argues that the Gospels are
written like legend, but Boyd claims they are not. Dr. Price finds himself “sifting
the gospel traditions” as he examines the biblical time period, the
witnesses, the gospel genre, and what he refers to as “parallel cases.” Boyd
follows this lead but thinks that legendary hypothesis is not sufficient
to explain Christ. He says, “the gospels are generally reliable;
they are not legendary.” Boyd quotes C. S. Lewis who claims, “Jesus
is myth become reality,” i.e., the legends imitate Christ.
Boyd says there are other historical documents we accept as “good
history”; whereas, the Gospels are not given the reliable authenticity
allowed other documents written centuries earlier, of which there are
fewer written records, in comparison to the many existing texts
of the Gospels.
Gregory A. Boyd is Senior Pastor at Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul,
Minnesota. He is also a professor of theology at Bethel College in St. Paul
and holds an M.Div. from Yale Divinity School, and a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological
Seminary. He has written numerous articles and published seven books, including
the best seller, Letters From a Skeptic (Victor, 1996) which has been translated
into five languages. His other books are Trinity and Process (Peter Lang, 1992),
Cynic, Sage or Son of God? (Bridgepoint, 1995), Jesus Under Seige (Victor,
1995), God at War (InterVarsity, 1997), and God of the Possible (Baker, 2000).
Robert M. Price teaches philosophy and religion at Johnston Community College
in Smithfield, North Carolina. The founding editor of The Journal of
Higher Criticism, he is the author of The Widow Traditions in Luke-Acts:
A Feminist-Critical Scrutiny (1997), Deconstructing Jesus (1999), and The Incredible
Shrinking Son of Man (forthcoming 2003). His academic credentials include an M.T.S.
from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, a Ph.D. from Drew University (1981),
and a second Ph.D. from Drew in1993.
Program recording date and length: 2003 ~ 1 Hour 29 Minutes (This study was presented originally at the University of California, Los Angeles.)
