Burton Mack was the most influential and, perhaps, controversial scholar of the Christian bible and Christian origins of his generation. He exposed the conventional story of Christian origins as a myth that needed to be studied not on its own terms but in terms of a general theory of religion that would be useful also in the study of religions other than Christianity. This article provides a brief summary of the main features of Mack’s work for readers who are not familiar with it. Its purpose is also to be a setup for a set of essays that engage Mack in their own areas of specialization in the study of religion.
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Arnal, William E. (2005). The Symbolic Jesus: Historical Scholarship, Judaism and the Construction of Contemporary Identity. New York: Routledge.
Cameron, Ron (2018). The labors of Burton Mack: Scholarship that’s made a difference. Forum, third series 7 (1), pp. 21–60.
Cameron, Ron, and Merrill P. Miller (2004a). Introduction: Ancient myths and modern theories of Christian origins. In: Ron Cameron and Merrill P. Miller, eds., Redescribing Christian Origins, pp. 1–30. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.
Cameron, Ron, and Merrill P. Miller (2004b). Conclusion: Redescribing Christian origins. In: Ron Cameron and Merrill P. Miller, eds., Redescribing Christian Origins, pp. 497–516. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.
Lincoln, Bruce (2014). Discourse and the Construction of Society: Comparative Studies of Myth, Ritual, and Classification. Second Edition. New York. Oxford University Press.
Mack, Burton L. (1988). A Myth of Innocence: Mark and Christian Origins. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.
Mack, Burton L. (1996). On redescribing Christian origins. Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 8 (3), pp. 247–269.
Mack, Burton L. (2001a). Caretakers and critics: On the social role of scholars who study religion. Bulletin of the Council of Societies for the Study of Religion 30 (2), pp. 32–38.
Mack, Burton L. (2001b). The Christian Myth: Origins, Logic, and Legacy. New York and London: Continuum.
Mack, Burton L. (2014). A secular bible? Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 26 (2), pp. 183–201.
Martin, Luther H. (2000). History, historiography and Christian origins. Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 29 (1), pp. 69–89.
McCutcheon, Russell T., ed. (1999). The Insider/Outsider Problem in the Study of Religion: A Reader. Controversies in the Study of Religion. London and New York: Cassell.
McCutcheon, Russell T. (2001). Critics not Caretakers: Redescribing the Public Study of Religion. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Smith, Jonathan Z. (1990). Drudgery Divine: On the Comparisons of Early Christianities and the Religions of Late Antiquity. Jordan Lectures in Comparative Religion 14. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Smith, Jonathan Z. (2009). The bible and religion. Journal of Biblical Literature 128 (1), pp. 5–27.
Smith, Jonathan Z. (2004). Dayyeinu. In: Ron Cameron and Merrill P. Miller, eds., Redescribing Christian Origins, pp. 483–487. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.
Young, Stephen L. (2020). “Let’s take the text seriously”: The protectionist doxa of mainstream New Testament studies. Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 32 (4), pp. 328–363.
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Burton Mack was the most influential and, perhaps, controversial scholar of the Christian bible and Christian origins of his generation. He exposed the conventional story of Christian origins as a myth that needed to be studied not on its own terms but in terms of a general theory of religion that would be useful also in the study of religions other than Christianity. This article provides a brief summary of the main features of Mack’s work for readers who are not familiar with it. Its purpose is also to be a setup for a set of essays that engage Mack in their own areas of specialization in the study of religion.
All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 161 | 161 | 22 |
Full Text Views | 171 | 171 | 7 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 325 | 325 | 14 |