Jesus Christ Superstition
Jesus Christ Superstition
About the Book
While Christian faith cannot be reduced to mere superstition, few would deny that Christianity is too easily plagued by superstition. Indeed, many Christian theologians have tried to purify Christianity of magical thinking in favor of genuine piety. In Jesus Christ Superstition, Robert M. Price examines this confusing intersection of Christianity and superstition. Is “practicing the presence of God” actually a variety of paranoia? Is having a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ” really akin to a child playing with an imaginary friend? At what point does a religious belief or practice become an obsessive neurosis? These are searching questions from someone who himself spent many years as an Evangelical Christian. Price finds that the source of superstition in Christianity is the objectification of the transcendent. As a result, he argues, many of the most destructive superstitions within Christianity are unfortunate accretions to the faith and by no means essential to it. In that regard, many of the beliefs and practices that interfere with a life-transforming piety could in principle be purged from Christianity to the glad benefit of its adherents. Christians who believe that an unexamined faith is not worth having will profit from struggling with Jesus Christ Superstition.
About the Author
Robert M. Price is the host of the podcasts The Bible Geek and The Human Bible as well as the author of books including Beyond Born Again, Deconstructing Jesus, Inerrant the Wind, and many others. He is the founder and editor of the Journal of Higher Criticism and has debated William Lane Craig, Bart Ehrman, Craig Blomberg and others.
Details
ISBN: 9781634311908
Format: paperback
SRP: $15.99
Page count: 191 pages
Trim size: 5.5 x 8.5
Pub date: September 2019
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About the Book
Theologian and writer Robert M. Price is perhaps best known today for his scholarly arguments against the existence of a historical Jesus. Yet, he has been at various times in his career an agnostic, an exponent of Liberal Protestant theology, a nontheist, a secular humanist, a religious humanist, a Unitarian-Universalist wannabe, an unaffiliated Universalist, and a Fellow of the Jesus Seminar. Any way you cut it, he is not your typical atheist. This collection of his best essays demonstrates his love for the various great religions, which he views as endlessly fascinating expressions of the human spirit. Beneath the keen insights and sharp critiques he offers, whether the subject is theology, secularism, or biblical studies, the essays themselves are also deeply personal and revealing. Read together, they document his self-extrication from the born-again Christianity in which he dwelt for some dozen years—and his subsequent rise to celebrated freethought advocate whose work has challenged an entire field.
About the Author
Robert M. Price holds PhDs in systematic theology and the New Testament from Drew University. He is the author of numerous books, including The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man: How Reliable Is the Gospel Tradition and has written his own translation of the New Testament. He's also written about the historicity of Moses, the nuances and problems of Christian theology, and, most notably, the question of a historical Jesus.
Details
ISBN: 9781634311342
Format: paperback
SRP: $17.95
Page count: 280 pages
Trim size: 6 x 9
Pub date: September 2017