Convened in
1985 by Robert W.
Funk, the Jesus Seminar has become a lightning rod for international
debate about the "historical Jesus" - that is, the real facts about
the person to whom various Christian gospels refer. The Seminar's on-going
project has been to evaluate the historical significance of every shred of
evidence about Jesus from antiquity (about 30-200 CE). Over the past thirty-some years more than
200 scholars from North America & beyond have participated
in its semi-annual meetings. Seminar Fellows include prominent
scholars from Canada, Great Britain, Germany, South Africa, Australia and New
Zealand as well as the U.S. For a roster of active participants click
here.
The first
phases of the Seminar's work on the evaluation & interpretation of Jesus
tradition are complete & the results have been published.
The Seminar is now turning its attention to analysis of the historical value
of materials about & by the first generation of Jesus people: e.g., the
Acts of the Apostles & letters of Paul.
Two features distinguish the research of
the Jesus Seminar from other scholarly forums:
The Seminar's deliberations are conducted as a public forum
involving both dialogue between biblical scholars & reaction from lay
associates. To insure candor, the debates are electronically recorded &
reported through major news media.