This is what biblical studies should look like – pushing, prodding, challenging, and thoughtful. I have mentioned before that academics tend to defend, but scholars almost always attack; this is yet another example of this law (let’s call it the Law of Scholarly Aggressiveness) in effect.
That’s from Mike Duncan’s blogpost on his thoughts after reading Robert Price’s The Amazing Colossal Apostle. (I have added Duncan to our Who’s Who list after being alerted to him and his views on Jesus mythicism by James McGrath.)
On Price himself Duncan has this to say:
It is always a pleasure to read a book by a real scholar. Price is often dismissed as a fringe figure, but to me he has that special combination of feisty aggressiveness and being well-read that marks someone that demands to be reckoned with. It is no longer fashionable to take Baur or van Manen seriously, but Price does, and it is refreshing to see a lengthy analysis of the Pauline corpus that refuses to yet again reinforce the middle of the road.
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I would not draw a distinction between academics or scholars, which sets up a false dichotomy. The major difference in Biblical studies is between those who agree to “belief statements” and allow the institution’s theology to direct their research, and those who work in institutions with no such requirements. The latter are not skeptical enough, but the former are not skeptical at all, and it is this faction which forms the majority of the “consensus” that gets trotted out so often. The main purpose of most Biblical research is to defend the Bible and all the institutions that take their authority from it.