A new episode of Glenn Siepert\u2019s What If<\/em> podcast has been released<\/a> in which Glenn and I talk about my book What Jesus Learned from Women<\/em><\/a>. Have a listen\u2014if you don\u2019t already this is probably a podcast you\u2019ll want to subscribe to and listen to regularly.<\/p>\n I recently made a guest appearance on Pete Enns\u2019 Bible for Normal People blog<\/a>. There I explore some points of intersection between my book\u00a0What Jesus Learned from Women<\/em><\/a> and Enns\u2019 work on the Bible\u2019s humanness.<\/p>\n Christian Feminism Today<\/em> has a review of\u00a0What Jesus Learned from Women<\/em> by Mark Mattison<\/a>. He\u2019s absolutely fair to insist that, for academics, I need to spell out the methodology underpinning my approach to the historical Jesus in the book and more generally. I already have in mind a follow-up book project that may provide the opportunity to do more of that. On the other hand, I think that it might be sufficient to emphasize the key points: One is that the overall gist of early material is more important evidence than individual snippets of information, providing a crucial guide to how we interpret the individual details. Another is that, while in principle early material is more likely to be authentic, we have documented instances of information being transmitted faithfully for centuries, as well as of invention and reinterpretation at an extremely early stage. With this in mind, I proceed largely through the use of established principles of reasoning, the main differences from some others in the past being that (1) I try to avoid interpreting specific sayings and stories against the grain of the overall impression that supporters and detractors provide us with regarding a figure like Jesus, and (2) I am willing to consider details that I only have in a source centuries later and weigh what it says on its own terms, because the fact that it is the first recorded mention of something that we have does not mean it is the point of origin of the idea. That said, it is important to distinguish between something that just happens to be mentioned in passing in a relatively late source, referred to as though it were widely known, and something that is introduced and advocated for, which suggests that it is indeed something new. There\u2019s a lot more I could say about this, but hopefully these few points are useful.<\/p>\n In case you missed it, here is my appearance on Tripp Fuller\u2019s Homebrewed Christianity podcast<\/a>. Brian LePort mentioned this in a post,\u00a0 Tripp Fuller talks to Helen Bond and James McGrath<\/a>. Alas, we each spoke to him separately rather than together, which would perhaps have been even better, but certainly would have been interesting and enjoyable!<\/p>\n Also related:<\/p>\n If you haven\u2019t read my book yet, can you guess why it mentions something that was also in the news recently, namely that archaeologist found a massive Phoenician grave in which dogs were buried<\/a>?<\/p>\n \u201cThe Unmaking of Biblical Womanhood\u201d in The New Yorker<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n