{"id":2436,"date":"2009-03-26T23:23:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-26T23:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/03\/the-jesus-project\/"},"modified":"2009-03-26T23:23:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-26T23:23:00","slug":"the-jesus-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/03\/the-jesus-project.html","title":{"rendered":"The Jesus Project"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>I was recently nominated and invited to become a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jesus-project.com\/fellows.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">fellow of The Jesus Project<\/a>, and I\u2019ve <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jesus-project.com\/fellows\/mcgrath.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">accepted<\/a>. Most readers of this blog will know that I\u2019ve actively participated in conversations and interactions with a number of other fellows on matters related to the historical figure of Jesus. So I figured I might as well make it \u201cofficial\u201d. To get a sense of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bibleinterp.com\/hoffman1\/hoffman1.shtml\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">what the project is about<\/a>, there are a number of helpful articles by various participants.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll leave you with a couple of thoughts about a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bibleinterp.com\/articles\/hoffman.shtml\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">quote<\/a> from the project\u2019s co-chair R. Joseph Hoffmann: \u201cThe Jesus of the Westar Project is a talking doll with a questionable repertoire of thirty-one sayings. Pull a string and he blesses the poor.\u201d If the Jesus of the Jesus Seminar seems suspect to some of us, I\u2019m sure that the feeling is mutual. Yet even though I know that talk of aiming for \u201cobjectivity\u201d is frowned upon these days, simply accepting that everyone will make a Jesus that suits them seems worthy of at least as harsh a frown. Although I would scarcely claim to be objective, I do not think that the failure to achieve an ideal makes striving for it any less worthwhile, and I think that the closest we can come is when we open our views and conclusions to criticism from those who disagree with us. And as I know that I disagree sharply on some issues with some other fellows of the Jesus Project, this should be a wonderful opportunity!<\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-3784863453590566269?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was recently nominated and invited to become a fellow of The Jesus Project, and I\u2019ve accepted. Most readers of this blog will know that I\u2019ve actively participated in conversations and interactions with a number of other fellows on matters related to the historical figure of Jesus. So I figured I might as well make [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Jesus Project<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I was recently nominated and invited to become a fellow of The Jesus Project, and I&#039;ve accepted. Most readers of this blog will know that I&#039;ve actively\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/03\/the-jesus-project.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Jesus Project\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was recently nominated and invited to become a fellow of The Jesus Project, and I&#039;ve accepted. Most readers of this blog will know that I&#039;ve actively\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/03\/the-jesus-project.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-03-26T23:23:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-3784863453590566269?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionProf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/03\/the-jesus-project.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/03\/the-jesus-project.html\",\"name\":\"The Jesus Project\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-03-26T23:23:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-03-26T23:23:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\"},\"description\":\"I was recently nominated and invited to become a fellow of The Jesus Project, and I've accepted. 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