8 responses so far ↓

• 1 Belknap Banquo // Jan 29, 2010 at 12:09 pm

  One question is, how did a liberal get hired by the Farm Bureau?

• 2 Novena // Jan 29, 2010 at 12:20 pm

  “Fred Phelps Beware”

  Jake, maybe you should send this book to Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist congregation of haters in Topeka, KS. Could the sickos there be headed for God’s wrath themselves?

• 3 UK Alumni // Jan 29, 2010 at 12:21 pm

  The forward is really interesting- is there anyway to get it quicker than 2 weeks from Amazon?

• 4 John T. // Jan 29, 2010 at 3:13 pm

  The great theologian John Dominic Crossan, also a liberal, once wrote that the problem with trying to find the “historic” Jesus is that when one looks at Jesus, one ends up looking down a well, and seeing only one’s own reflection looking back. Liberals see a liberal Jesus, conservatives see a conservative Jesus, and skeptics like me wonder if one existed at all.

  I haven’t read the book, but frankly don’t see anything in the descriptions that is markedly different from every other liberal who has written a book analyzing the New Testament, and I suspect that one really interested in the subject would be better off reading Crossan, or
  Bart Ehrman, or the late Raymond Brown, or Bishop John Shelby Spong of my own Episcopal Church.

  It always seems to surprise people not terribly familiar with modern Christianity that there are lots of liberal Christians out there, they just tend to be Episcopalians and Methodists and Presbyterians and whatnot, not Baptists or Pentecostals. There are also lots of liberal Catholics; in modern times, Catholic biblical scholars have tended to be more liberal than the protestants.

  In recent years, the evangelicals have been getting all the headlines and trying to steal the show, but there is a huge body of liberal biblical scholarship out there for anyone interested.

• 5 Todd E. // Jan 29, 2010 at 4:58 pm

  John T. is quite right. In fact, that’s the point of my book. Indeed, here’s a quote from Albert Schweitzer cited in my epilogue, “There is no historical task which reveals one’s true self than the writing of a Life of Jesus.” The difference between my book and others, like Crossan’s or Spong’s, however, is that my bias is overt in my effort to show precisely how such bias has been used for centuries to make Jesus mean whatever we want. Indeed, my admitted bias throughout is used as a didactic tool for showing how such bias was also slipped into the original gospels and the interpretation and inflation of Jesus’ life and teachings throughout history ever since. That, I hope, is what makes my treatment of the Jesus story stand out a little from others in the genre. I hope you’ll give it a chance John T., and, again, your point is well made, and was, in fact, an impetus for my writing the book.

• 6 John T. // Jan 29, 2010 at 5:15 pm

  That’s a good point, Todd.

  While the liberal biases of Crossan and Spong are well known, they don’t tend to use their biases as didactic tools. My own view is that the gospels, at least in the form that they have reached us, allow for a variety of interpretations, and one’s biases tend to guide one’s interpretation. As you know, the Episcopal Church, to which I still belong, though as somewhat of a doubter, tends to agree with your interpretations: Despite the potential wrath from Lambeth, we are still committed to full participation in our faith as ordained ministers by everyone, including women, gays, and lesbians.

  I will indeed give your book a trial, and wish you the best of luck with it.

• 7 Larry Estep // Jan 30, 2010 at 5:01 pm

  Does anyone else remember that Todd Eklof worked for WHAS-TV for several years in the 1990′s, mainly as a “one man band” reporter/photographer for the Good Morning Kentuckiana program. I figure that is why WHAS-TV was the only one to pick up on this story because I am sure he still has contacts there.

  It is a shame that the rest of the media has taken a blind eye to this. Other TV stations must be afraid of losing the advertising dollars that KFB provides for their frequent ads.

• 8 jake // Jan 30, 2010 at 5:10 pm

  He got HAS coverage because I hyped the story a couple years ago. Sean Bartel then called Hebert and the story was done. Most of the folks there had no clue he once worked at the station.

  But you’re spot-on about other outlets ignoring the story – including the Courier-Journal. It’s even causing the local Fairness group to second guess everything they do with the case because they’re afraid to have problems with the state fair, sadly.

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