“Did Jesus Exist? A Debate”

The invaluable Robert Boylan calls attention to a really interesting debate:

http://scripturalmormonism.blogspot.ie/2015/10/did-jesus-exist-debate.html

I’ve briefly addressed this question of the existence of Jesus in at least three Deseret News columns (here, here, and here).  I readily admit that I regard the claim that Jesus never lived at all as eccentric and as largely driven by ideology and by the internet rather than by solid academic argument.  To deny that Jesus was the divine, redeeming Son of God is one thing.  To flatly claim that no such individual ever existed, period, seems to me, right now, as merely bizarre.