Jesus, Interpreted: Benedict XVI, Bart Ehrman, and the Historical Truth of the Gospels by Matthew J. Ramage
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Just Silly

“What is the appropriate presupposition for the task at hand?” Ramage approvingly quotes Benedict XVI who appears in his own words as a card-carrying Pragmatist. Benedict is correct to ask the question of course. But by some not very subtle sleight of hand, both he and Ramage then go on to equate presupposition with religious belief, as if faith simply supplied some otherwise unknowable but superior presupposition from which to think about the world. This is not only an intellectual fraud, it is also an attack on human intellect itself in the manner of all Christian apologists since Saul of Tarsus successfully redefined religion as something to do with the heart rather than the head.

Jesus, Interpreted is a direct response to Bart Ehrman’s books on the historical exegesis of the Bible carried out by scholars over the last 250 years or so (See for example https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...). Ramage admires Ehrman’s scholarship and exposition but doesn’t like his conclusions - mainly that the clear layer of legend which has been added to the oldest gospel texts (those of Mark) indicates a progressive divinisation of Jesus by his followers after his death. Ramage does not dispute the legendary addenda but he does disagree about their implications. He wants to demonstrate that the ‘revelation’ of Jesus’s divinity was virtually instantaneous to his followers during his lifetime.

Ramage’s (somewhat fey) apologetic technique is to use the exegetical and apologetic writings of the former pope, Benedict XVI, as counters to Ehrman’s thesis. As Ramage recognises, however, this is a risky path since Benedict differs fundamentally in his views from those of the historical church regarding the critical study of the Bible. By allowing the debate to move beyond the scope of mere church interpretive authority, Benedict does promote intellectual engagement at a level never before experienced in the Catholic Church - a dangerous move if common standards of rationality are employed as criteria of credibility.

But there are doctrinal limits to the freedom intellect which even Benedict dare not transgress. And these are precisely set in the matter of presuppositions. And in general the presuppositions he and Ramage have are those articles of faith which they want to defend. This is patently tendentious. The method is not to investigate or interrogate scripture but, in the ancient manner of the first Christian apologists, to sift through documents, legends, and traditional interpretations to find confirming data, and to use these data to invent explanations for inconsistencies, errors and contradictions. The intent is to protect the presuppositions at all cost.

Ramage attacks what he calls Ehrman’s “merely philosophical presumptions”. He believes that his own presumptions about the religious testimony of early followers of Jesus are at least as good a place to start in thought as as any epistemological principles. In particular, Ramage wants the miracles reported in the New Testament to be accepted as factually accurate accounts. This he makes equivalent to Benedict’s plea for an “open philosophy” in biblical criticism. The rest of his argument follows from this presupposition.

It is difficult to know where to even begin a rational response to this point of view. Faith in miracles is not equivalent to critical exegetical presuppositions like authorial intentions, or sociological conditions, or states of knowledge. These can be questioned, modified and if necessary abandoned. The presupposition of miracles is simply an intellectual dead-end; it is not permissible to question much less abandon it. Garbage in, garbage out as they used to say in computer programming. So it is impossible to even call Ramage wrong; he is only silly. Jesus, Interpreted simply digs the hole Christianity finds itself in to new depths.

Postscript: For more on the difference between religious faith and scientific presumption see: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

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