THE HISTORICAL JESUS QUESTS By Rook Hawkins 1.1 History and Kerygma: An Overview of the First and Second Quests “Since David Frederick Strauss, in his “Life of Jesus,” attempted for the first time to trace back to myths and pious fictions, doubts regarding the existence of an historical Jesus have never been lulled to rest.” – Arthur Drews read more Read Full Story
Signed With Love, A Dead Civilization By Rook Hawkins Thomas Cahill wrote that “the Historian’s principal task should be to raise the dead to life.”[1] Cahill is certainly right. Often times in antiquity, ancient historians would take this statement too literally, raising their protagonist from the dead using all sorts of miraculous and fictional motifs to do it. Thankfully, the days where city founders and saviors would meet their righteous followers on the road before ascending off... Read Full Story
I have been meaning to write an article on a few of the entries in the most recent BAR. No, not the Browning Automatic Rifle, I’m talking about the Biblical Archaeology Review. Although some of you would probably find the first more entertaining, the latter is really the more important and relevant thing to discuss, as far as I’m concerned. Especially in light of the guest appearance this Wednesday night on our show, Dr. Hector Avalos, and his fascinating book, The End of Biblical Studies. I... Read Full Story
(Name withheld), I hope you and your family are doing well. I'm going to respond to your points paragraph at a time. I will be as direct and to the point as I can, so please do not mistake my blunt responses for rudeness. I am just short on time since I am spending so much of it on my book. Below I will separate your paragraphs from mine. (This may seem long but I take this subject very seriously. This is, after all, what I do for a living; as a historian it is my job to correct... Read Full Story
Well its been a year now since I first started writing with the intent to publish a book. In that year a lot of good has happened. As many of you now know, I have been submitting my book for review with the hopes of getting published by an academic press. This good fortune has been brought about with the help of a friend, and it has allowed me to refocus my book from the original 22 chapters down to 10, significantly shortening the amount of research and time I would have otherwise needed... Read Full Story
As many of you know I work part time at a bookstore because (a) I don't make enough with RRS to support all my bills and (b) I love books and enjoy selling them to people. Well, yesterday morning as I was helping somebody in the religion section, a customer asked me for books on illnesses. I walked her over to the section and pointed out some books of interest to her, and as I was walking away she stated affirmatively that she had managed to get her son to read, and that her job was... Read Full Story
Josiah Concept Ministries and the Historical Christ Hypothesis By Rook Hawkins After my article on the problems of the historical Jesus and the Gospels as fictional narratives,[1] I was worried that Christians would be afraid to refute these positions, and therefore I would not be able to generate the dialog that I so wanted to have. Thankfully, one Christian, Cory Tucholski,[2] has taken up this charge to defend his faith against my articles. read more Read Full Story
