2008-07-02

Vridar makes it to the God Fearin’ Forum

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

by Neil Godfrey

As an atheist and social-political activist I’ve long had a soft spot for Catholics when it comes to social justice causes, so it was a flattering surprise to see a nice commendation of my recent series on Luke-Acts in relation to Marcionism in the Patristic Carnival XIII section of The God Fearin’ Forum [scroll over the blog page to restore colour settings for a readable page], a blog for Catholic theology, philosophy and apologetics etc.

A companion recommendation listed with mine is Ben C. Smith’s commencement of “a thought provoking thread on the same subject: Which Came First, the Gospel of Luke or that of Marcion?” — The iidb/frdb discussion is attached below…..

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"I still wonder at all the material you turn out for Vridar. The more I read your stuff (and I still do, of course), the more I realize how much we all owe you. Your voice is unique."

— Earl Doherty, November 2013 (personal email)
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Nancy Fraser - June 2019 (personal email)
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— John Moles, September 2011 (personal email)
"Very good. This post is going straight to the March 2016 Biblical Studies Carnival."

—N.T. Wrong, – March 2016
"I have found your website really valuable as an interpretive filter for Biblical scholarship, especially the origins of Christianity and historicity of Jesus issue. Your clarity of expression, fair comments and personal insights are much valued. I refer to your site frequently as yet more names and publications pop up requiring an academic critique and helpful recommendations for book purchases. So, please continue to delve deeply and share this intellectual sustenance with your grateful readers."

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-- Jim West, – September 2010
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— Gregory Doudna, – January 2019
This is superb work, Neil, and reminds me of Albert Schweitzer’s work from a century ago. . . . .

I commend you for being the first to even TRY to translate Bruno Bauer’s brilliant Kritik der Evangelien und Geschichte ihres Ursprungs, which is now more than 150 years old.

. . . . .Thank you for your historic effort.

-- Paul Trejo, M.A., - November 2022
Editor, An English Edition of Bruno Bauer’s 1843 Christianity Exposed
https://earlywritings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=145080#p145080
Neil made a good synthesis of the work without being an “expert” of the field.

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"I’d like to thank you for this very nice representation of what I was trying to show in the book. It’s always gratifying when a reader zeroes in on exactly those aspects I thought were most interesting and most central to my argument. Thank you for this careful and engaged reading of my work – much appreciated!"

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"Thanks much for this book review. I think it expands, and contributes to, the effort in honouring Thomas that we with Lukasz originally had in mind with this volume. Best, Emanuel"

-- Emanuel Pfoh - August 2020
"Thanks for your very elaborate review! I realized that I hadn’t added your blog to our blogroll. This oversight has been corrected. Looking forward to more segments."

— Anthony Le Donne, – September 2009
"Here I give an admittedly subjective short list, in random order, of useful, high level and regularly updated weblogs on the study of the Old Testament . . . ‘Vridar: Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science’ (http://vridar.org/) by Neil Godfrey"

-- Klaas Spronk, - Bibliotheca Orientalis LXXI, 3/4 (2014)
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— April DeConick, – November 2007
It is worth saying another word of appreciation here for Neil Godfrey's effort to make Bruno Bauer accessible in English.

-- Peter Kirby, - May 2023
"Neil Godfrey and Tim Widowfield, who both write at Vridar . . . happen to be some of the most astute and well-read amateurs you can read on the internet on the subject of biblical historicity. I call them amateurs only for the reason that they don’t have, so far as I know, advanced degrees in the subject. But I have often been impressed with their grasp of logic and analysis of scholarship. I don’t always agree with them, but I respect their work."

— Richard Carrier, – March 2014

Clarke W Owens on Are Historical Sources “Innocent Until Proven Guilty”?: “Switching courts in Item (3) from civil back to criminal.” Oct 2, 13:54
Thomas Worthington on Seeking a Plausible Origin for the Seducing Serpent in the Garden of Eden: “Asclepius is, of course, a single snake. The pair of snakes belong to Hermes. So a snake and a rod…” Oct 2, 13:47
Clarke W Owens on Are Historical Sources “Innocent Until Proven Guilty”?: “A scholar has a duty to strive to avoid obvious ignorance and blatant sophistry. We all make mistakes. We sometimes…” Oct 2, 13:38
Neil Godfrey on Are Historical Sources “Innocent Until Proven Guilty”?: “You are only confirming my point. If you approach the sources with the ideological conviction that they are forgeries (because…” Oct 2, 03:49
LC on Are Historical Sources “Innocent Until Proven Guilty”?: “The comment in relation to the Historia Augusta that “The author is obviously guilty of professional dishonesty.” is a quote…” Oct 2, 02:31
Neil Godfrey on Are Historical Sources “Innocent Until Proven Guilty”?: “Robert, your approach here — hiding your true agenda and attempting to engage under the cover of a benign spirit…” Oct 1, 21:24
Neil Godfrey on Are Historical Sources “Innocent Until Proven Guilty”?: “In other words, conspiracy theory. Unknown agents but “known” motives. Secret evidence — hidden from view, but real and discoverable…” Oct 1, 20:49
Neil Godfrey on Are Historical Sources “Innocent Until Proven Guilty”?: “I wonder if a psycho-analytical study might point towards an interesting motivation for drawing upon the “unjust trial of an…” Oct 1, 20:08
Neil Godfrey on Can We Reliably Study Unique Events?: “Of course every historical event is in some ways unique (with the definition of unique forbidding a superlative form of…” Oct 1, 19:50

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