2016-08-04

Happy Birthday Earl Doherty

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

by Neil Godfrey

Today, or whenever Thursday 4th August catches up with you, is, according to my Facebook reminder, Earl Doherty’s birthday. Earl has had a major impact on the understanding of many people about Christian origins whether or not they agree with every detail. And even among those who flatly oppose his views he managed to ruffle feathers and raise concerns over the questions many more people are asking.

Some years back in personal exchanges with Earl I found my awareness of the need for constant testing of one’s ideas against logical validity and evidence becoming increasingly honed. I was especially inspired by the grace, cool calm, sharp logic and vast knowledge of the scholarship and sources that he applied in his first foray into discussions with biblical scholars on Crosstalk despite the unprofessional responses of a few names there. Everything he has written on Christian origins is worth reading and thinking about.

And I am particularly grateful for him introducing me to Vardis Fisher’s Testament of Man series of novels (a graphic sits on the top right corner of this blog), from which I branched out to further read Children of God.

Anyway, enough of the speech. Have a great day, Earl.

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5 thoughts on “Happy Birthday Earl Doherty”

Max says:

2016-08-04 02:30:21 GMT+0000 at 02:30

Happy Birthday, Earl. I could never wrap my mind around your ideas initially from just reading your books and blog posts. But thanks the tireless efforts and discussions by many here on Neil’s blog, I now realize there is more to Christian origins than first meet the eye. Thank you for broadening my mind. – Max

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Ed-M says:

2016-08-04 22:31:34 GMT+0000 at 22:31

Happy Birthday, Earl, and many happy returns. Plus, what Max said. ^

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Manoj Joseph says:

2016-08-05 15:02:58 GMT+0000 at 15:02

Happy birthday Earl. I learned a lot from your books! Thank you!

Reply
mcduff says:

2016-08-06 14:46:42 GMT+0000 at 14:46

Happy birthday Earl – I have enjoyed your writings.

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Pombal says:

2016-08-06 17:18:28 GMT+0000 at 17:18

Happy Birthday Earl. I echo the above sentiments. You helped me clarify a lot of issues, especially about Paul’s writings and your commentary on Hebrews is insightful.

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