Ebook
What will you do as a parent if your fourteen-year-old comes home from school and says, "You and the teachers have been telling me Columbus discovered the Americas. You've lied to me because that isn't true. There are no such things as facts, and I decide the meaning of what is written in my textbooks. I'm the one who chooses the interpretation of any writing, including history and the stories of Columbus"? How are you going to answer, especially in light of what the Encyclopaedia Britannica states about Columbus? This book examines how historical Jesus scholar John Dominic Crossan has dismantled education, TV viewing (by application), and religious studies with his postmodern deconstruction of the text. His theme is "I formulate it here as I see it." Texts and interpretations are out of the mind of Crossan. Using a hypothesis testing technique, the author challenges Crossan's perspective that Jesus's resurrection was an apparition and not a bodily resurrection. Even though he calls on others to "First, read the text," that is not what he does. The philosophical crusher has found him out to be contradictory in his assessment of history in his autobiography and his own writings on the historical Jesus.
“I’ve known Spencer Gear for many years, and I’ve always found
him to be a bright, dedicated scholar with the highest integrity
and a heart for the welfare of God’s people. His book is both
astute and helpful. I’m looking forward to seeing how God will use
it to build his kingdom.”
—Rodger Dalman, Old Testament scholar and author of Created for
Conflict
“Hypothesis testing technique, philosophical crushers, subjectivity
in reading, appeal to objectivity in first reading the text, and
Crossan’s challenge to first read the text. With this combination
of lenses and methods of reading, Gear challenges Crossan’s
understanding of the resurrection of Jesus. Interesting approach,
interesting read.”
—Ernest van Eck, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Spencer D. Gear has been blessed with a diverse range of
employment, starting in the 1960s as a radio DJ and TV newsreader.
He taught church history, NT Greek, and counseling for five years
at Commonwealth Bible College (now Alphacrucis College, Sydney,
Australia.) Most of his professional life has been as a counselor
of troubled youth and their families. Upon retirement, he pursued a
PhD in New Testament with the University of Pretoria, South Africa
(supervisor Professor Ernest van Eck), completing it in 2015. This
book is an adaptation of part of that thesis.