Added the ninetieth Freethinker Podcast YouTube Fourth Interview with John Dominic Crossan on Paul the Pharisee & Luke/Acts (2024) to the Freethinker Podcast page under Resources on the Secular Web.
Join host Edouard Tahmizian for this just over thirty-minute interview with return interviewee and former Jesus Seminar member John Dominic Crossan as they review why critical scholars believe that only seven of the thirteen letters attributed to Paul are written by him, with the remaining six letters being anti-Pauline revisions that deradicalize and de-Romanize Paul on issues like slavery and patriarchy. The discussion then turns to the reasons for thinking that Paul—like the Q source, Mark, and John in the Book of Revelation—believed that Christ’s second coming would happen in the disciples’ lifetimes (i.e., no later than 100 CE), as well as critical scholars’ reasons for thinking that references to the Antichrist were clearly references to Emperor Nero for first-century readers. Crossan then turns to why conservative Christian attempts to explain away the obvious—that New Testament proclamations that the end was “soon” were simply wrong—are less pressing than the fact the human exploitation of planetary resources today is threatening life on Earth and could result in the dissolution of our world in a more important sense of “soon.” Tune in for this wide-ranging interview with an eminent New Testament scholar whose great storytelling really brings these issues to life for modern readers!