The Jesus Project, announced in December 2007, was intended as a five-year investigation to examine whether Jesus existed as an historical figure. The idea was that a group of 32 scholars from a variety of disciplines would meet regularly with no preconceived ideas, funded by the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion

Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion

The Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion, or CSER, is based at the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, New York. According to its mission statement, CSER is a research consultation devoted "to the study of religion and ethics from the standpoint of philosophical naturalism and to the...

, part of the Center for Inquiry

Center for Inquiry

The Center for Inquiry is a non-profit educational organization with headquarters in the United States whose primary mission is to encourage evidence-based inquiry into paranormal and fringe science claims, alternative medicine and mental health practices, religion, secular ethics, and society...

.

Initiated by historian of religion R. Joseph Hoffmann

R. Joseph Hoffmann

R. Joseph Hoffmann is a historian of religion, and was chair of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion, Associate Editor of the journal Free Inquiry from 2003-2009. He was founding editor of CSER's Review, CAESAR: A Journal of Religion and Human Values...

, chair of the Committee, the project sought to improve upon what Hoffmann saw as the failure of the Jesus Seminar

Jesus Seminar

The Jesus Seminar is a group of about 150 critical scholars and laymen founded in 1985 by Robert Funk under the auspices of the Westar Institute....

 to determine what, if anything, can be recovered about Jesus, using the highest standards of scientific and scholarly enquiry. The Committee suspended the project's funding in June 2009 after Hoffmann expressed concern about its purpose and direction, and it has not been active since then.

Membership

Its fellows included Richard Carrier

Richard Carrier

Richard Cevantis Carrier is an American historian. He is best known for his writings on Internet Infidels, otherwise known as the Secular Web, where he served as Editor-in-Chief for several years....

, Bruce Chilton

Bruce Chilton

Bruce Chilton is a scholar of early Christianity and Judaism, now Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Religion at Bard College, and formerly Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament at Yale University. He holds a degree in New Testament from Cambridge University...

, Robert Eisenman

Robert Eisenman

Robert Eisenman is an American Biblical scholar, theoretical writer, historian, archaeologist, and "road" poet. He is currently Professor of Middle East Religions, Archaeology, and Islamic Law and director of the Institute for the Study of...

, Dorothy King

Dorothy King

Dorothy King is an American archaeologist and historian who lives and works in England. Described as someone who "breaks the mould of the dusty academic", she is the author of a 2006 book on the Elgin Marbles defending the British retention of the Marbles against Greek claims, and a former Fellow...

, Paul Kurtz

Paul Kurtz

Paul Kurtz is a prominent American skeptic and secular humanist. He has been called "the father of secular humanism." He is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo, having previously also taught at Vassar, Trinity, and Union colleges, and the New School for...

, Stephen Law

Stephen Law

Dr. Stephen Law is a philosopher and senior lecturer at Heythrop College in the University of London. He also edits the philosophical journal Think, which is published by the Royal Institute of Philosophy and aimed at the general public. Law currently lives in Oxford, England, with his wife and two...

, Niels Peter Lemche

Niels Peter Lemche

Niels Peter Lemche is a biblical scholar at the University of Copenhagen.-Biblical minimalism:Lemche is closely identified with the movement known as biblical minimalism, and "has assumed the role of philosophical and methodological spokesperson" for the movement.In common with the general trend...

, Gerd Lüdemann

Gerd Lüdemann

Gerd Lüdemann , is a German New Testament scholar. He taught this subject from 1983 to 1999 at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Göttingen. Since 1999 he has taught there with a special status as Chair of History and Literature of Early Christianity...

, Dennis MacDonald

Dennis MacDonald

Dennis Ronald MacDonald is a professor of theology at the Claremont School of Theology in California. MacDonald is known for his controversial theories wherein the Homeric Epics are the foundation of various Christian works including the Gospel of Mark and the Acts of the Apostles...

, Robert M. Price

Robert M. Price

Robert McNair Price is an American theologian and writer. He teaches philosophy and religion at the Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary, is professor of biblical criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute, and the author of a number of books on theology and the historicity of Jesus, including...

, James M. Robinson

James M. Robinson

James McConkey Robinson is Professor Emeritus of Religion, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California. He is a member of the Jesus Seminar and arguably the most prominent Q and Nag Hammadi library scholar of the 20th century. He is also a major contributor to The International Q...

, Richard E. Rubenstein

Richard E. Rubenstein

Richard E. Rubenstein is an author and University Professor of Conflict Resolution and Public Affairs at George Mason University, holding degrees from Harvard College, Oxford University , and Harvard Law School...

, James D. Tabor, and Thomas L. Thompson

Thomas L. Thompson

Thomas L. Thompson is a biblical theologian associated with the movement known as the Copenhagen School. He was professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen from 1993–2009, lives in Denmark and is now a Danish citizen.-Background:Thompson obtained a B.A...

. The first meeting took place in New York in December 2008,

Termination

The project was halted in June 2009 when Hoffmann announced that in his view the project was not productive, and its funding was suspended. He wrote that there were problems with adherents to the Christ myth theory, the idea that Jesus did not exist, asking to set up a separate section of the project for those committed to the theory, which Hoffmann felt signalled a lack of necessary skepticism. He was also concerned that the media was sensationalizing the project, with the only newsworthy conclusion being that Jesus had not existed, a conclusion he said most participants would not have reached.

He also argued that New Testament documents, particularly the gospels, were written at a time when the line between natural and supernatural was not clearly drawn, and concluded that further historical research was not realistic. "No quantum of material discovered since the 1940’s, in the absence of canonical material, would support the existence of an historical founder," he wrote. "No material regarded as canonical and no church doctrine built upon it in the history of the church would cause us to deny it. Whether the New Testament runs from Christ to Jesus or Jesus to Christ is not a question we can answer."

External links

• The Jesus Project, Center for Inquiry, accessed August 6, 2010.