Any day now, a major media outlet will release a feature story which, with a great deal of promotional ballyhoo, will claim to call into question the ordinary Christian understanding of the Gospel story. It’s become an annual tradition: as Easter approaches, and secular journalists look for an exciting new angle, an enterprising scholar offers his own latest theory to debunk the faith.
The nature of the scholarly theory differs from year to year. It may be the reported discovery of a new gospel, or of a grave that is said to contain the remains of Jesus. Or it may simply be a new interpretation of familiar Bible verses. Sometimes the theory comes from the “Jesus Seminar,” a cabal of academics committed to reinterpreting the Gospels. Sometimes the stories can be traced to theorists with no real academic background: intellectual loners with their own pet projects.
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