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Raised on the Third Day: Defending the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus
Did Jesus rise from the dead? Is resurrection even possible?
Raised on the Third Day approaches these questions with critical and believing eyes. A variety of contributors―including J. P. Moreland, William Lane Craig, Craig A. Evans, Beth M. Sheppard, and Sean McDowell―evaluate scriptural, historical, moral, and apologetic issues related to Christ’s death and resurrection. Readers will better appreciate how Gary Habermas has shaped the discussion and how scholarship can be moved forward. Study of Christ’s resurrection is far from exhausted.
Raised on the Third Day approaches these questions with critical and believing eyes. A variety of contributors―including J. P. Moreland, William Lane Craig, Craig A. Evans, Beth M. Sheppard, and Sean McDowell―evaluate scriptural, historical, moral, and apologetic issues related to Christ’s death and resurrection. Readers will better appreciate how Gary Habermas has shaped the discussion and how scholarship can be moved forward. Study of Christ’s resurrection is far from exhausted.
- GenresTheologyChristianity
392 pages, Paperback
Published November 23, 2020
53 people want to read
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August 18, 2021
Essays in Honor of Gary Habermas
This book is a festschrift, a collection of essays by different authors, all making contributions in honour of Gary Habermas, a veteran scholar who as a scholar, mentor, and friend has impacted each of them in some way.
Not all the essays are equally accessible or compelling (hence the four stars), but I would pick this book up just for two chapters, independently written essays on the Shroud of Turin, a subject which Dr. Habermas has dealt with extensively, having co-written two books on it. These two chapters are wonderful summaries of what we know so far, and completely dispel the notion that the carbon-14 dating back in 1988 was the definitive piece of evidence exposing the Shroud as a medieval fraud.
Even without dealing with the dating itself, drawing a definitive conclusion from one piece of evidence when multiple other pieces of evidence point the other way, is just not how good science is done. It is, however, how science is done when one wants to reach a particular conclusion and is not interested in following the evidence where it leads.
Furthermore, it has been determined that the cloth samples used for the dating likely included medieval cloth that was sown into the Shroud in order to mend it. The author reports that three independent textile experts were shown close-up photographs of the Shroud C-14 samples, without revealing they were from the Shroud. All the experts independently reported that they saw evidence of very skillful reweaving in the samples. Further research revealed that a technique known as French invisible reweaving had been developed and perfected by the French court, in part to repair tapestries that were imaged on both sides. And it just so happened that the Shroud itself was in France at that moment in its history.
This evidence was submitted to and accepted for publication to a peer-reviewed journal in 2005. It became the first paper published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature to directly challenge the 1988 radiocarbon dating results. And yet in spite of this and all the other evidence to the contrary, most people in the world simply accepted the carbon-14 dating results and moved on. "Apparently," the author wryly notes, "'Shroud is a Fake' makes a much better headline than, 'Scientific Evidence May Prove the Shroud is Authentic.'"
As I said, some of the contributing essays are more arcane and academic than others. But beyond the Shroud chapters, one by Craig Hazen caught my attention. He is a professor at Biola University in Los Angeles, and the occasion for this chapter was an invitation he received to address a class at a local community college as one of a group of invited speakers who would represent various world religions.
He was going to speak generally about Christianity, but changed his mind on the spur of the moment and decided to speak about why, when one was investigating the world religions, it made the most rational sense to start by investigating Christianity. He had four main points, the first of which was that alone among the world's religions, Christianity is testable. This idea of Christianity being "testable" and that the tools of reason, rather than mere preference, were appropriate when thinking about religions - these were new to the students he was talking to. And in the short time he had with them he relates how they were really engaged and challenged to think about Christianity and other religions in categories such as "knowledge" and "objective truth" that they had never considered before.
Asked to contribute a short preface as a guest, Gary Habermas indicated that he was truly surprised, delighted, and honored by this book. Skimming the table of contents, he was impressed by the "absolutely outstanding lineup of scholars that Beck and Licona had assembled... To the readers, I wish you many pleasant hours of thoughtfulness and study. May we all march forward together from our callings, jobs, and disciplines to being just as committed to personal ministry."
This book is a festschrift, a collection of essays by different authors, all making contributions in honour of Gary Habermas, a veteran scholar who as a scholar, mentor, and friend has impacted each of them in some way.
Not all the essays are equally accessible or compelling (hence the four stars), but I would pick this book up just for two chapters, independently written essays on the Shroud of Turin, a subject which Dr. Habermas has dealt with extensively, having co-written two books on it. These two chapters are wonderful summaries of what we know so far, and completely dispel the notion that the carbon-14 dating back in 1988 was the definitive piece of evidence exposing the Shroud as a medieval fraud.
Even without dealing with the dating itself, drawing a definitive conclusion from one piece of evidence when multiple other pieces of evidence point the other way, is just not how good science is done. It is, however, how science is done when one wants to reach a particular conclusion and is not interested in following the evidence where it leads.
Furthermore, it has been determined that the cloth samples used for the dating likely included medieval cloth that was sown into the Shroud in order to mend it. The author reports that three independent textile experts were shown close-up photographs of the Shroud C-14 samples, without revealing they were from the Shroud. All the experts independently reported that they saw evidence of very skillful reweaving in the samples. Further research revealed that a technique known as French invisible reweaving had been developed and perfected by the French court, in part to repair tapestries that were imaged on both sides. And it just so happened that the Shroud itself was in France at that moment in its history.
This evidence was submitted to and accepted for publication to a peer-reviewed journal in 2005. It became the first paper published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature to directly challenge the 1988 radiocarbon dating results. And yet in spite of this and all the other evidence to the contrary, most people in the world simply accepted the carbon-14 dating results and moved on. "Apparently," the author wryly notes, "'Shroud is a Fake' makes a much better headline than, 'Scientific Evidence May Prove the Shroud is Authentic.'"
As I said, some of the contributing essays are more arcane and academic than others. But beyond the Shroud chapters, one by Craig Hazen caught my attention. He is a professor at Biola University in Los Angeles, and the occasion for this chapter was an invitation he received to address a class at a local community college as one of a group of invited speakers who would represent various world religions.
He was going to speak generally about Christianity, but changed his mind on the spur of the moment and decided to speak about why, when one was investigating the world religions, it made the most rational sense to start by investigating Christianity. He had four main points, the first of which was that alone among the world's religions, Christianity is testable. This idea of Christianity being "testable" and that the tools of reason, rather than mere preference, were appropriate when thinking about religions - these were new to the students he was talking to. And in the short time he had with them he relates how they were really engaged and challenged to think about Christianity and other religions in categories such as "knowledge" and "objective truth" that they had never considered before.
Asked to contribute a short preface as a guest, Gary Habermas indicated that he was truly surprised, delighted, and honored by this book. Skimming the table of contents, he was impressed by the "absolutely outstanding lineup of scholars that Beck and Licona had assembled... To the readers, I wish you many pleasant hours of thoughtfulness and study. May we all march forward together from our callings, jobs, and disciplines to being just as committed to personal ministry."
Displaying 1 of 1 review