An excellent new website has just appeared which I'd like to heartily recommend. It belongs to Justin Martyr who penned this brilliant article for me about Paganism and Christianity debunking a few old and new canards. His new site is Liberal Christian Research where he brings his professional training as a classicist and ancient historian to bear on biblical studies and Christian doctrine. When Justin says 'liberal' he means it in the sense I do - an orthodox Christian but not one who takes a conservative view of issues like evolution, inerrancy and some traditions. So do have a read of his essays and let him know if you think they are any good.
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Welcome to Quodlibeta
The Latin word Quodlibeta means "whatever you like" and refers to the special occasions at medieval universities when the students (or clerks as they were known) could test their masters by asking any question they fancied. This blog is primarily concerned with religion, science, history and their interface. But like the medieval clerks, we reserve the right to post on anything we want.
Meet the Clerks
James Hannam
I am a historian of the relationship between science and religion, and also write on the UK tax system. My first book was published as God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science in the UK and The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution in the US. My apologetics website is Bede's Library. I am also the author What Everyone Needs to Know about Tax and write about tax at my other blog. I can be found on Twitter as @DrJamesHannam.
Humphrey Clarke
I am a historian of a very middling and amateurish sort. Having taken a Masters in Modern History at the University of St Andrews (2004), I completed a law conversion course at Nottingham Law School and embarked upon what has been an exciting career in legal technology. My chief interests are in Twentieth Century History, Colonial America, Historiography and, most recently, the History of Science. I also write a satirical blog at The Diary of Humphrey Clarke. I hope my contributions to Quodlibeta capture something of the pleasure I get from trawling my dusty collection of second hand history books.
Jim S
I have a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Master's degrees in Philosophy and Theology. I'm a generalist, my areas of expertise being epistemology, logic, philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion, and science and religion. I did my philosophical studies in Continental Europe, and currently reside in the Pacific Northwest. I also write the Agent Intellect blog. In my mid-20s I decided to refute Christianity to set my conscience at ease. Two subjects I turned to in particular were science and philosophy. I accidentally argued myself into it.
I am a historian of the relationship between science and religion, and also write on the UK tax system. My first book was published as God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science in the UK and The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution in the US. My apologetics website is Bede's Library. I am also the author What Everyone Needs to Know about Tax and write about tax at my other blog. I can be found on Twitter as @DrJamesHannam.
Humphrey Clarke
I am a historian of a very middling and amateurish sort. Having taken a Masters in Modern History at the University of St Andrews (2004), I completed a law conversion course at Nottingham Law School and embarked upon what has been an exciting career in legal technology. My chief interests are in Twentieth Century History, Colonial America, Historiography and, most recently, the History of Science. I also write a satirical blog at The Diary of Humphrey Clarke. I hope my contributions to Quodlibeta capture something of the pleasure I get from trawling my dusty collection of second hand history books.
Jim S
I have a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Master's degrees in Philosophy and Theology. I'm a generalist, my areas of expertise being epistemology, logic, philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion, and science and religion. I did my philosophical studies in Continental Europe, and currently reside in the Pacific Northwest. I also write the Agent Intellect blog. In my mid-20s I decided to refute Christianity to set my conscience at ease. Two subjects I turned to in particular were science and philosophy. I accidentally argued myself into it.
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3 comments:
Hmm, so the historical Jesus would have thought it absurd to claim that he was divine?
http://www.liberalchristian.co.uk/Evolution.htm
I'm not sure that's actually orthodox (Catechism 442-444) unless you constrain "historical" so narrowly that Jesus becomes uninteresting to me. See Luke Timothy Johnson on that score.
The site is a good site, with a lot of interesting information, although it would help his discussion of modernism if he would point out that some modernists (Loisy in particular) went overboard. I had a seminary professor who was enamored of modernism, but as I recall it, even he couldn't deny that Loisy basically wrote himself out of Christianity. In my professor's estimation, Pope Pius was at fault, for excess severity on the modernists -- but my professor lost credibility in my eyes when he proceeded to deny the necessity of baptizing children, which was logical since he denied original sin.
Anyway, I find the entire site a little *too* liberal to be orthodox. The gentleman is however quite erudite, and I enjoyed reading what I read.
jack perry
Hey Justin --
The terms "historical" and "Jesus" are tossed around a lot, without really explaining what's meant by them, so let me ask what you mean by it: do you mean the Jesus that we can reconstruct using purely historical methods, or do you mean the actual Jesus who lived and breathed?
I've found that academics often use the word "historical" when they mean the former, but it gets tossed around in the press, and in common speech as the latter. I only realized the difference from reading Luke Timothy Johnson's "The Real Jesus". It seems to me that an orthodox Christian can say, "the historical Jesus" did not claim to be God," but not "the Jesus who actualy lived and breath in Judæa" -- since we believe we have additional insight through faith, and the Holy Spirit's illuminating the Church.
I happily admit I'm not much of a theological expert, and I'm a little paranoid because of what I see in the Church today, so your phrasing confuses me. Can you clear that up, just so I understand exactly what you mean by "the historical figure Jesus of Nazareth"?
jack perry
The topic of authorship is so frustrating to me. Conservative Christians maintain that the NT documents were written by the traditional authors, moderates claim that some of them were, atheists and skeptics claim that none of them were. Then you have orthodox Christians who believe that John (and other NT books) wasn't written by John and then atheists, such as Robin Lane Fox, who concludes that the John WAS written by the apostle.
Ugh...Makes my head spin.
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