Doubts Aloud Podcast

Episode 60– Show NotesJohn Nelson returned as our guest to start off 2023. He’s been monitoring the debate about what literary genre we should consider the gospels to be and what the implications would be if they are taken as biography in the Greek & Roman tradition. The question fits with his studies for his PhD at the University of Edinburgh in Christian Origins. John maintains that understanding biography allows us to avoid the crass literalism of fundamentalism (and its attendant overconfidence in our ability to recover the historical Jesus), on the one hand, and an equally flat dismissal of its historicity on the other. We chat about the different ways both apologists and counter-apologists misuse ancient biography for their historicising or mythologising agendas. I.e. we’re very much the pupils this episode. Links:The Unbelievable? Show which sets up this discussion (With Mike Licona and Richard Burridge)It’s the episode of 16 June 2017 ‘Why are there differences in Gospels?’ Also find these in your