I hope you enjoyed my talk: Did Jesus Rise From The Dead? A Historical Examination.
Here is my slide deck from the talk:
Next, here are some useful books. The first two are more introductory; the other three are a bit longer and heavier, but well worth the effort.
- John Dickson, Is Jesus History (The Good Book Company, 2019) — excellent introduction to the historical study of Jesus by an Australian historian and gifted writer.
- Gary Habermas & Michael Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (Kregel, 2004) — a very accessible introduction to the historical study of the resurrection. (Gary was the person I mentioned who has spent 40+ years building a massive database of scholarly opinion on the resurrection).
- Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (Eerdmans, 2017) — now famous study of the evidence for eyewitness testimony being present in the gospels. Incredible level of detail, brilliant analysis, but still very readable. A book that changed the scholarly debate on the subject.
- Michael R. Licona, The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach (IVP Academic, 2010) — an exhaustive study and application of the “minimal facts” approach to the resurrection that I used in the debate. A brilliant section, too, on historical methodology and also on history and miracles. Long, but worth it!
- N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (SPCK, 2017) — incredibly detailed historical study of the resurrection of Jesus. Particularly useful for the survey of pre-Christian pagan literature, showing nobody believed in “resurrection”, as well as a thorough survey of how belief in the resurrection turned Jewish theology upside down as the church began.
Finally, some fantastic free web resources (articles, videos etc) …
- “What is the evidence for the Resurrection?” (A Solas SHORT/ANSWERS video) — a 4 minute video covering more quickly some of the ground we explored tonight.
- “New Evidences the Gospels were Based on Eyewitness Accounts” — a brilliant lecture by Dr. Peter Williams of Cambridge University, summarising Richard Bauckham’s work (above). Really worth the watch.
- “The Minimal Facts Approach to the Resurrection of Jesus: The Role of Methodology as a Crucial Component in Establishing Historicity” — article/essay by Gary Habermas setting out and discussing the “minimal facts” (historical bedrock) methodology I used in the debate.
Hope you enjoy all these resources!