I am watching the A Case For Christ documentary by Lee Strobel (for one of my classes, awesome!), based on his book by the same title.
I highly recommend reading the book. If you are not a reader (which you really should think about becoming) or just don't have the time (fair enough) than watch the movie.
I read this book shortly after choosing to follow Jesus, and I found it extremely insightful.
For those of you who are analytical and enjoy using a scientific method I think you will appreciate the information in this book.
If you have been a Christian for some time, I believe this book will better equip you in being a accurate witness for Jesus.
If you have a lot of doubts and/or criticism about Jesus and who He said He was, you are in good company because this is the same place that the author was at when he started researching what would turn out to be the content of this book. I challenge you to read/watch A Case For Christ. Please let me know what you think.
I would love to hear what you all think, maybe we can share together our comments, questions, and concerns.
No matter who you are, what you do or do not believe I encourage you to take some time to look at A Case For Christ.
This book (or rather He) could change your life.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteWas browsing through the War College website and happened to come across one of your blog posts which had the address to this blog, so I decided to check it out. Anyway, I enjoy discussing Christianity and since you've invited people (no matter what they believe and, presumably, no matter who they are) to discuss "The Case For Christ", I thought I'd chime in.
The documentary is certainly entertaining and interesting. Most of the scholars featured are highly respected. However, all of the scholars are also Evangelicals. I wonder if Strobel ever interviewed non-Christian scholars in his search for the truth about Christianity? Surely, if you want to try and find the truth on some matter, you should give a fair hearing to all sides. For of course, there are non-Christian (New Testament) scholars that don't believe the gospels are all that reliable, that don't believe Jesus was God, and that don't believe he rose from the dead, etc., etc. Their reasons for not believing that stuff are probably worth hearing too (and not just through the lips of Evangelicals).
Almost all the issues they discussed are very much debatable. Authorship of the Gospels, the Nature and Role of Oral Tradition, the Empty Tomb, the Resurrection Appearances, etc. There is quite a bit disagreement among NT scholars on all these things. Unfortunately, just about all of it is also quite complex and so I'm not going to try to cover it myself. If you're interested, here are a few links that correct or discuss from a different perspective some of the claims in "The Case For Christ":
* On the whole Mark and Papias issue, see here
* For a close examination of what Luke wrote at the beginning of his gospel about eyewitnesses, see (just) section 7.3 here
* On Messianic Prophecy see here
Price may not get everything right, but I still think he shows quite convincingly that the usual understanding of "messianic prophecy" is mistaken.
I'd also challenge you (!) to read NT scholar Maurice Casey's new book on the Historical Jesus, "Jesus of Nazareth: An independent historian's account of his life and teaching"
There are good chapters on the Resurrection and the Miracles of Jesus in there.
Hope this wasn't too long . . . :)
Hi :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, no not too long. I have to be honest I don't think at the present moment in my life I will be able to do proper reading of all these resources, but I am going to keep the list and pick away at them :)
I appreciate your criticism about Strobel not interviewing any non-Christian scholars, and I agree. In one of our classes we are talking about Who Jesus Is, and we have read some papers on the importance of combining both the historical evidence, and faith. Not one or the other, but both.
An initial thought I had when looking through your list, is that depending on what you are arguing you can use the historical evidence to support your argument, this is where faith comes in.
I have to be honest that the reason A Case for Christ impacted me so is that I already had faith in Christ and the historical evidence just confirmed it. I understand that there are just as many of more scholars that would argue against Jesus being God, which is fair enough, but of little concern to me, because at the end of the day I have faith in Jesus being God because I have experienced Him, I know that this is very un scientific, which I am ok with.
Again thanking for reading and sharing I appreciate it very much :)