The Jesus Project

Hail CSER!

That's (slightly) funnier if you understand that the acronym for the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion, "CSER," is pronounced "Caesar."

I'm hailing CSER because it was an exciting day yesterday for the organization, which at CFI-West headquarters made its official Los Angeles announcement of the Jesus Project.

The scholars, archeologists, historians and other academics of the Jesus Project (many of whom are former members of the now-defunct Jesus Seminar) are taking a "radical" approach to the question of the existence of Jesus. Which is to say they are taking a scientific approach. As chairman R. Joseph Hoffman put it yesterday, he considers the question of the historical Jesus to be a "testable hypothesis." And he plans to test it.

This "testable hypothesis" angle is a relatively radical approach only because in the past academics studying Jesus were largely content to obey the theologians and clergy who demanded that they never investigate Jesus of Nazareth's actual existence. In the past, many scholars have had their careers ended for violating this taboo. Thus, the launch of the Jesus Project represents a serious blow for science against blind faith.

Both Bob Price and Earl Doherty are part of the project, but scholars who support the existence of Jesus are also included (so long as they can sign on to the idea that the historical Jesus is a testable hypothesis, according to Hoffman). The Jesus Project will meet twice a year over the course of five years, issuing articles leading up to a final report. Meetings will be open to the public.

For me, one of the most encouraging aspects of this new project is the cover it will give some prominent atheists who weren't sure about this whole "Christ Myth" thing and have attempted to avoid the subject or distance themselves from it. Until now, while there have been serious individual scholars looking into the subject, there has not been an institution giving it such credibility. Certain folks who perhaps felt like they were going out on a limb by appearing in The God Who Wasn't There can breathe a little easier in the future.

(In the case of Susan Jacoby, who has previously hurled bizarre insults at those who consider the question of the historical Jesus to be open, I don't know if the the Jesus Project will make a difference. But since Jacoby seems to be taking a political approach, with her finger in the wind seeking a "moderate" position friendly to theists but still defensible, perhaps she will now tone down her rhetoric out of fear of staking out too much territory on the wrong side of the facts. That would certainly be my recommendation to her.)