Convened in
1985 by Robert W.
Funk, the Jesus Seminar has become a lightning rod for international
debate about the "historical Jesus" - that is, the real facts about
the person to whom various Christian gospels refer. The Seminar's
project has been to evaluate the historical significance of every shred of
evidence about Jesus from antiquity (about 30-200
CE). Over the past thirty-some years more than
200 scholars from North America & beyond have participated
in its semi-annual meetings. Seminar Fellows include prominent
scholars from Canada, Great Britain, Germany, South Africa, Australia and New
Zealand as well as the U.S. For a roster of participants
click
here.
The Seminar's work on the evaluation & interpretation of Jesus
tradition are complete & the results have been published.
The Seminar is now turning its attention to analysis of the historical value
of materials about & by the first generation of Jesus people: e.g., the
Acts of the Apostles & letters of Paul.
Two features distinguish the research of
the Jesus Seminar from other scholarly forums:
The Seminar's deliberations are conducted as a public forum
involving both dialogue between biblical scholars & reaction from lay
associates. To insure candor, the debates are electronically recorded &
reported through major news media.