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Robert M. Price

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Robert M. Price
For other people named Robert Price, see Robert Price (disambiguation)

Robert McNair Price (born July 7, 1954 in Mississippi) is Professor of Theology and Scriptural Studies at Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary, an unaccredited school in Carol City, Florida governed by a New Thought organisation known as the Universal Foundation for Better Living.[1] Price is a religious skeptic, especially of orthodox Christian beliefs, occasionally describing himself as a "Christian atheist" on his show and in interviews. He is a veteran of the Jesus Seminar,[2] and the organizer of a Web community for those interested in the history of Christianity.

Price edited the now defunct Journal of Higher Criticism[3], and in addition to many books and articles on religion, he has written extensively about H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.[4]

Background

Price is a former Baptist Minister in New Jersey, with Doctorates in both Theology (Drew University, 1981), as well as in New Testament (Drew, 1993).[5]

A self-described humanist, he is a member of the Episcopal Church and is friendly with fundamentalist Christians outside of academia. He is also friends with the evangelical (but not fundamentalist) pastor and author Greg Boyd, with whom he has had numerous public debates concerning the historicity of Jesus.

Religious writings

In books like The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man and Deconstructing Jesus, Price challenges Biblical literalism and argues for a more skeptical and humanistic approach to Christianity. He questions the idea of a historical Jesus; in the documentary The God Who Wasn't There, Price supports a version of the Jesus myth, suggesting that the early Christians adopted the model for the figure of Jesus from the popular Mediterranean dying-rising saviour myths of the time, such as that of Dionysus. He argues that the comparisons were known at the time, as early church father, Justin Martyr had admitted the similarities. Price suggests that Christianity simply adopted themes from the dying-rising god stories of the day and supplemented them with themes (escaping crosses, empty tombs, children being persecuted by tyrants, etc.) from the popular stories of the day in order to come up with the narratives about Christ.[citation needed] He has argued that there was an almost complete fleshing out of the details of the gospels by a Midrash (haggadah) rewriting of the Septuagint, Homer, Euripides' Bacchae, and Josephus.[6]

Price denies that the Q source is a reliable source for the historical Jesus, because Q simply shows a common cynical tang and therefore does not imply a single sage existing behind it.[citation needed] Price acknowledges that there are a few ancient non-New Testament sources (such as Tacitus) that claim Jesus Christ was a real living person. However, Price points out that even if these references are taken as genuine, they at most refer to the claims of the contemporary Christians of the time about Jesus, and were never claims of Jesus as a contemporary of the ancient writers. [citation needed]

H. P. Lovecraft scholarship

As editor of the journal Crypt of Cthulhu[7] (published by Necronomicon Press) and of a series of Cthulhu Mythos anthologies[8][9][10], Price has been a major figure in H. P. Lovecraft scholarship and fandom for many years.[11] In essays that introduce the collections and the individual stories, Price traces the origins of Lovecraft's entities, motifs, and literary style. The Cthulhu Cycle, for example, saw the origins of the octopoid god in Alfred Lord Tennyson's "The Kraken" and particular passages from Lord Dunsany, while The Dunwich Cycle points to the influence of Arthur Machen on Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror".

Price's religious background often informs his Mythos criticism, seeing gnostic themes in Lovecraft's fictional god Azathoth[12] and interpreting "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" as a kind of initiation ritual. [13]

Other works

Price also runs The Bible Geek, a broadcast show that allows people to "ask the Bible Geek" questions that he will answer.[14]

He appeared in Brian Flemming's 2005 documentary film The God Who Wasn't There. Price is, since 1994, the editor of The Journal of Higher Criticism.

In 2010 Price became one of three new hosts on Point of Inquiry (the Center for Inquiry's podcast), following the retirement of host D. J. Grothe from the show. Having appeared on the show twice before as a guest (see external links below), he will now host about a quarter of the new podcasts.[15]

Books

On religion

  • The Widow Traditions in Luke-Acts: A Feminist-Critical Scrutiny Society of Biblical Literature. ISBN 0788502247 (Mar 1997).
  • Mystic Rhythms: The Philosophical Vision of Rush Borgo Press. ISBN 1587151022. with Carol Selby Price (1 Nov 1998)
  • Deconstructing Jesus Prometheus Books. ISBN 1573927589. (20 Mar 2000).
  • The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man: How Reliable is the Gospel Tradition? Prometheus Books. ISBN 1591021219. (20 Dec 2003)
  • The Empty Tomb: Jesus Beyond The Grave Prometheus Books. ISBN 159102286X. with Jeffery Lowder (20 April 2005)
  • The Da Vinci Fraud: Why the Truth Is Stranger than Fiction Prometheus Books. ISBN 1591023483. (20 Sep 2005).
  • The Reason Driven Life: What Am I Here on Earth For? Prometheus Books. ISBN 1591024765. (1 Sep 2006).
  • The Pre-Nicene New Testament: Fifty-four Formative Texts ISBN 1560851945. (30 Oct 2006)
  • The Paperback Apocalypse: How the Christian Church was Left Behind Prometheus Books. ISBN 1591025834. (1 Sept 2007).
  • Jesus is Dead Amer Atheist Pr. ISBN 1578840007. (April 2007).
  • Top Secret: The Truth Behind Today's Pop Mysticisms Prometheus Books. ISBN 1591026083 (April 8, 2008)
  • Beyond Born Again: Towards Evangelical Maturity Wildside Press. ISBN 1434477487 (30 Oct 2008).
  • Inerrant the Wind: The Evangelical Crisis of Biblical Authority Prometheus Books. ISBN 1591026768 (1 Dec 2008).

On the Cthulhu Mythos (as editor or author)

References

  1. ^ "Mission and Purpose". Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary. Retrieved January 11, 2009.
  2. ^ Tokasz, Jay (30 November 2008). "Scholars to explore existence of Jesus". The Buffalo News. Retrieved 22 February 2009.
  3. ^ Journal of Higher Criticism Home Page
  4. ^ Joshi, S. T.; Schultz, David E. An H.P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia. Hippocampus Press. p. 217. ISBN 097487891X.
  5. ^ Brief Biography of Robert M. Price
  6. ^ Price, Robert M. (2005). "New Testament narrative as Old Testament midrash". In Jacob Neusner and Alan J. Avery-Peck (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Midrash: Biblical Interpretation in Formative Judaism. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 90-04-14166-9.
  7. ^ Harms, Daniel. The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia. Elder Signs Press. p. XV. ISBN 1934501050.
  8. ^ Shannon Appelcline, A Brief History of Game #3: Chaosium: 1975-present on RPG.net
  9. ^ Joshi, S.T. Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: An Encyclopedia of Our Worst Nightmares. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 126. ISBN 0313337802. The Cthulhu Mythos remains a popular venue in literature and the media. Since the 1980s Robert M. Price has been a kind of August Derleth redivivus in publishing a dozen or more anthologies of Cthulhu Mythos tales by writers old and new
  10. ^ Mitchell, Charles P. The Complete H.P. Lovecraft Filmography. Greenwood Press. p. 6. ISBN 0313316414.
  11. ^ Hite, Kenneth (2008). Tour De Lovecraft: The Tales. Atomic Overmind Press. p. xiii. Joshi's only rival for eminence in the field durin the 1980s and 1990s was Robert M. Price
  12. ^ Price, Robert M. "Introduction". The Azathoth Cycle. Chaosium. ISBN 1568820402.
  13. ^ Hite, Kenneth (2008). Tour De Lovecraft: The Tales. Atomic Overmind Press. p. 84. Equally importantly and convincingly, Price analyses the tale as a vision-quest, a coming-of-age ordeal ritual, which I have to say is pretty dead-on.
  14. ^ The Bible Geek
  15. ^ "Center for Inquiry Announces Three New Hosts for its Popular Podcast, 'Point of Inquiry'". Retrieved 14/2/10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Text "Center for Inquiry" ignored (help)

External links

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