I have one new academic journal publication, one trade publication, and one popular media mention to mention…
(1) Richard Carrier, “The Prospect of a Christian Interpolation in Tacitus, Annals 15.44,” Vigiliae Christianae 68 (2014): 264-83 is now in print. It is also available in my book Hitler Homer Bible Christ. I just blogged about the latter’s appendix to it in A Bayesian Brief on Comments at TAM.
(2) Richard Carrier, “Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt: Should We Still Be Looking for a Historical Jesus?” The Bible & Interpretation (August 2014). This is an online trade journal for biblical historians, so it may get some attention within the field.
(3) Valerie Tarico, “Did the Historical Jesus Exist? A Growing Number of Scholars Don’t Think So,” AlterNet (30 August 2014), which has been picked up by Salon, The Raw Story, and other venues. This mentions me and links to my website. I have been informed that this is already generating interest at FOX News. Her coverage is decent considering its brevity. Critics have already made claims against it that are incorrect (e.g. mistakenly thinking only the scholars she names are questioning the historicity of Jesus…in fact, half a dozen already are on record as such, and yet more have conceded they believe it’s debatable).
-:-
I am about to begin a long speaking tour in which I will be in transit almost constantly for the next three months (see my tour list, which will soon be expanding with even more stops, at Chicago, Ohio, Stanford, Orange County, Ventura, and San Diego). Accordingly, there will be even greater than normal delays in moderating my blog comments queue. Right now there are some thirty comments awaiting review. But it will take me a few days to get through them. And such delays will continue for a while. I apologize for the inconvenience.
I really appreciate the link to #2. It gives me a great quick read to recommend to friends who might be initially scared off by a 600 page book!
You’ve been mentioned a few times at Daily Kos over the last few days.
Someone posted on the Tarico diary: “Scholars acknowledge no evidence Jesus existed”
The next day, there was a response: “We are reality-based except when the subject is religion”
Some people are very upset that anybody is daring to ask the wrong questions.
Richard Carrier’s name comes up a few times. But almost no one who is defending historicity is engaging his arguments. They like to think the matter is CLOSED!
(The consensus was decided a long time ago. So there is no need to be discussing it now. Or something.)
Hi RC,
Excellent work. My copy of OHJ is on the way. I enjoyed the BibleInterp article. Keep up the good work.
Jacob
Heh. Fox news is getting wind of the book? I’ve been looking forward to that ever since they got all freaked out about Reza Azlan’s effort.
I love reading your articles about the historicity of Jesus.
Just passed page 500 of “On the Historicity” and learned about the invented Mr. Lazarus. Your book is a hard-fought, successful effort to reverse-engineer how Jesus came about. By investigating the material in the NT and the chronology of its writing, you have uncovered a deception of epic proportions and epic importance. You have shown the world the technique of how the myth was created. Bless you.
As a bonus, from reading your book, my knowledge of the New Testament has increased many fold. I will now recognize where many cultural references come from.