About this blog

I’ve always dreamed of starting a blog about Jesus. While my childhood friends were playing G.I. Joe and mumblety-peg, I would sit at home and try out possible weblog layouts on my Etch A Sketch.  Erstwhile, none of the girls would dance with me because they were intimidated by my signed copy of E.P. Sanders' The Historical Figure of Jesus. Still I pressed on with the hope that one day I might be able to review books with Latin titles. So, when Chris Keith and I started discussing this blog, I knew that a lifelong goal of mine was finally materializing. Take that, Brenda Snaeffenschlogger! You may have passed me over for a taller dance partner, but I am now a societal elite. That undersized wallflower swaying alone to Time after Time has blossomed into an aspiring blogger.

Here are the kinds of things you might find on this blog in 2012:

• Rough thoughts concerning Jesus - I will suggest that Jesus was a non-violent messianic prophet who believed in a warrior god. Chris will call me a dirty hippie and trot out an obscure verse from Luke 22. Oh, the fun we will have.
• Matters related to Jesus historians - I will write of my love for Joseph Fitzmyer and Chris will share some of his poetry dedicated to Martin Hengel.
• News and notes on the professional field of Jesus studies - we will discuss upcoming conferences, projects, and best practices in religious and historical studies.
• Reviews - I am embarking on a project that considers historical voices on Jesus that have been overlooked by most “Quest” surveys. I might review Harvey Falk’s Jesus the Pharisee or Thomas Jefferson’s collected letters / Bible. Chris will review only very expensive monographs that he can resell on Amazon.
• Portraits of Jesus in popular culture - I am just dying to show that I am hip by discussing the newest films, like Peter Sellers' “Being There”.
• 101 Possible Dissertation Topics - this feature will offer over one hundred ideas for potential PhD students who are lacking a “topic”.
• Interviews - we will interview the best and the brightest scholars in the field. In the coming weeks you can expect to see interviews from Helen K. Bond, Paula Fredriksen, Mark Goodacre and others. We’ve been trying to land an interview with Rafael Rodriguez, but he is a very busy man.
• Once a year we will rank the best university program(me)s for PhD candidates who want to study the Jesus of history.

We look forward to your support and your comments. Our tireless (and anonymous) intern will adjudicate all comments to guard against inappropriate, spam-generated, and hostile comments.

our warmest welcome,

anthony