Antiquitopia

I just saw that Larry Hurtado has a good-length initial review of Bart Ehrman's new book, How Jesus Became God , on his blog here .  He says he will have a fuller review in Christian Century.  I haven't read Ehrman's newest, but the review seemed fairly balanced.

If anyone who reads this blog has somehow does not also read Larry Hurtado's or April DeConick's blogs, please check into the discussion they're having about Gnostics as Christian Intellectuals. Hurtado's first post ; DeConick's  response ; Hurtado's  response to DeConick's response. Hurtado's posts predominantly raise the question of definition: what is an intellectual (and, by the way, most scholars would not fall under his definition because you have to be public - and therefore counts only those engaged in apologetics or who can draw a Greco-Roman response)?  This definition of intellectual, relying on the old distinction between a scholar and an intellectual, raises some questions for early Christian thinkers (a term I will use to cover both scholars and intellectuals). So was Origen merely a scholar - not an intellectual - until he wrote Contra Celsum ?  How truly "public" are apologetic writings?  Though Justin's apologies are...

Larry Hurtado continues to raise questions about the utter silence on the so-called Jesus' Wife Fragment, which begins to elaborate a sad state of scholarship in which scholars do not read those who take a different perspective than they do nor admit (alleged) fault. See further comments by Mark Goodacre .

Larry Hurtado asks an important question: What has happened to the Jesus' Wife Fragment ?  Perhaps as Anthony Le Donne's newest book, The Wife of Jesus , gets more circulation, scholars will continue to want to know (even if - or especially because - the popular hype has subsided). (I have just started reading this book, by the way.  Thought it would be some good, light reading.)

Larry Hurtado is discussing the role of revelatory experiences (and "charismatic exegesis") for the religious innovation of including Jesus as a figure of worship in emergent Christianity.  The information can be found scattered throughout his books (starting with One God, One Lord ), but is the basis of some recent lectures he gave in the Houston area.  Give it a look--this aspect of his thesis has always most fascinated me throughout his various writings.

Larry Hurtado gives a brief history of the "Early High Christology Club," and what it really means.  I should note that I have had the privilege of joining the club on a couple occasions on the coattails of my late adviser, Alan Segal, and that one of the coveted Early High Christology Club mugs currently sits on my office desk.  To Scottish Irrigation!

As it seems with most bibliobloggers, I haven't had time to post in quite a while between the SBL conference, teaching, research, and other academic duties.  Nonetheless, I just noticed Larry Hurtado is talking about his hobby horse of early high Christology on his blog .  He lengthily and substantively engages with an article by Andrew Chester on the topic, and it is well worth the read to see a rather comprehensive survey of the issue.