Join My Online Course on How Best to Question (or Defend!) a Historical Jesus

I’ve now added “The Historicity of Jesus” to my monthly class roster. You can register now and join us starting the 1st of next month or any subsequent month. Register anytime ahead of the month you want—for this or any of several other courses I’m offering. Join in! And let anyone else know you think might be interested—including those who insist Jesus existed.

For this course, apropos of my recent two-part blog series, learn about the debate over whether Jesus existed even as an ordinary man or not, including the best arguments pro and con (so not just my case against it, but also the best arguments and evidence for it), as well as the cultural and historical background of the origin of Christianity (invaluable knowledge no matter what you conclude about Jesus). How could Christianity begin without a Jesus? And how can that even be plausible? Find out!

What’s in This Course

This is the best chance to get a thorough look at the whole historicity debate of the last decade, and get to ask a Ph.D. expert in the field all the questions you ever had about it.

We’ll go through my book On the Historicity of Jesus chapter by chapter and discuss its contents, and look at some additional resources and challenges. By the end, you’ll be able to converse informedly about all the main issues in the debate: what the best evidence is for the historical Jesus, why it can be questioned and how, and how you can decide for yourself whether theories without a historical Jesus are better or not. You will also have the opportunity to ask me all the questions you want, challenge me with all the arguments you’ve run into, and otherwise pick my brain on all the related issues you think important.

And of course, what I don’t cover in this course, probably isn’t true or usable. So this is a chance to see what stands out as reliable, amidst all the bad arguments for Jesus being mythical that infest the internet. Want to be inoculated against the “fake news” in the mythicism debate, so you can only stand on good arguments and not bad ones, and aren’t fooled into believing what isn’t well founded? This is the course for you!

Sign up! Questioning or Defending the Historicity of Jesus begins August 1, or the 1st of any future month you want. And it goes one month, covering four units, one per week. There are no timed events so you can do the readings or post questions or engage in the forum discussions whenever you want, any day and time that suits you. All the course materials, including the discussions, stay available for you to consult or download for at least another month after that.

New Method of Registering

I have moved all my online courses to a Google Groups platform. They are more affordable, and any class can be taken in any future month you like, not just this coming month. Now any of my ten standard courses are available in any month. Courses will always start the first of the month and end at the close of that month. (Check them all out!)

Registration for any single one-month course is only $49. Every course also requires you purchase a single course text, in either print or digital format, which you should give yourself plenty of time to receive before starting the course. The required text is explained in each course description. For the Historicity of Jesus, it’s my peer reviewed monograph On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt.

Additional course readings will be provided for free.

Students will require a Google Account (creating one is free and easy and has many other uses) and must pay the registration fee using my PayPal portal (you don’t need a PayPal account; any suitable credit or bank card will do). After paying the $49, email me with a note that you’ve paid and what for (which month and course; you can choose to start in any future month, any course I am offering; remember to also get the course text, per above). In that email please provide me the same name you used with PayPal, and your Google Account email address, so I can invite you into the course forum. You will be sent that invite by email on or before the first of the month you chose.

Then participate as much or as little as you like! Read the assigned course materials each week, answer the forum challenge questions, and post any questions or challenges you have on the subject. I’ll provide serious and attentive answers and assessments and continue to engage with you as much as you need throughout the month.

Also consider registering for any other of the several courses on my roster—this or any future month, of which the following are just a sample of all ten:

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